Kingdom Hearts:Shattered Persona
by bamafelix
Summary: His soul shattered, his memories missing, Minato has nothing but the clothes on his back and the nagging feeling telling him to move forward. On a quest to find friends and memories alike, Minato will find himself involved in a war between the forces of light and darkness. Will he be able to keep both his heart AND soul intact?
1. Prologue: Amnesia

**Alright! Chapter 1 of KH: Falling Star rewrite. Also known as Kingdom Hearts: Shattered Persona! Enjoy everyberdy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Persona or Kingdom Hearts no matter how much I want to.**

**Prologue:**

**Amnesia**

So cold...

It was so cold around him. Not to mention dark.

Cold and dark...but mostly dark...He just couldn't tell...

...were his eyes opened...or closed?

At first it wasn't as bad. He had admitted it was a little chilly, but it felt like there was something inside of him keeping the warmth from draining out of his body. But eventually that changed.

He had lost something. Not his heart. That was certainly still there, but...it was so cold. He was certain it had been something else he had lost. The sea of darkness continued to get colder and darker with each passing moment. He could sense other bits of light and warmth despite not being able to see them, but he couldn't reach out or call out to them.

Whatever he lost, he was certain it was important because with each moment, after another piece is lost, he just starts feeling so much colder. He just knew it had been what was previously protecting his heart from the darkness. And with its loss, the darkness began to try to swallow him. What little was left of his poor excuse of a heart began to be swallowed by the endless abyss.

He would be enveloped and his body would be crushed by this very darkness...

He couldn't move or breathe...but he felt no real need to do either. He wasn't suffocating and there wasn't anywhere or any direction to move in. There were other currents in the sea...but this current was controlled and led to the darkness. He felt those other currents carrying away the bits and pieces of what he lost, never to be seen again.

_"...to..."_

A voice?

The darkness gave no further indication of noise, so he wrote it up to his imagination...or what was left of it.

_"W-...up...to..."_

There it was again...it felt vaguely familiar, but at the same time he felt no real connection to it. His heart remembered but something else of his had forgotten that oh so familiar voice.

_"Wa-...inato!"_

Why did this voice continue to bother him? It was certainly a voice of someone connected to his heart, but he could not place a face or name to that voice for the life of him.

_"Wake up, Minato!"_

Then there it was. It was faint, but he could see it what could be inches of miles away. A single speck of light. The darkness seemed to shrink away from the light, trying to drag him away with it, but he resisted its powerful tendrils. Rather than run away, he chose to reach toward that warm light. The light that was fighting away all of the darkness and despair.

_"Come on! It's time to wake up!"_

The light continued to grow and expand until it devoured all of his surroundings, leaving him in a sea of light rather than darkness...

...it was too intense...

...He blacked out.

* * *

The first sensation he felt had been faint but undeniable...he knew what it was.

Pain.

Not real pain, but it was irritating enough. An annoying poke to the head with some hard object. Perhaps a stick.

"He's not moving." stated a young voice with no face for the noise. It was no doubt that boy who spoke who held the stick as he felt another poke to the head.

"You really shouldn't do that, Tidus." warned a slightly older yet relatively unconcerned voice. "Might not be a good idea, man." He had a rather tropical kind of accent to him.

Another poke. "Yep. I think he's definitely dead." The voice, now identified as Tidus, replied.

"You think he drowned out at sea? Poor guy." said a slightly more sympathetic female voice. "How long do you think he lasted?"

Tidus seemed to not have heard the question. "So...what should we do with him? Bury him on the beach?"

There was clearly a shocked silence as the presumed unconscious boy took that moment to sit up straight.

"You're concern is 'touching'." He stated sarcastically, finally opening his eyes for the first time. He had to shield them for a moment because the sudden change from darkness to light was a little overwhelming. And light, there was plenty of. Not to mention other children. At least several of them.

The previously unconscious boy rubbed his head, feeling a fading pain from some sort of shock. He immediately took the opportunity to observe his surroundings. He was on some sort of tropical island. That was about all he could tell for the moment other than the fact he was sitting on a beach with some sand in his hair form lying down before. "'Where am I?' seems like the practical question to ask."

A kid just about around his age with brown, spiky hair scratched his head. "Well, you're on our island...I mean, you kinda just washed up on the shore not too long ago."

The bluenette scratched his head. He took the opportunity to properly examine himself. He was just about thirteen/fourteen similar to these people and wore a slightly loose fitting outfit that may have been some sort of school uniform, but he couldn't tell. It must've been the the school uniform of his own school back in...

His eyes widened. "That's strange..."

The boy, the one who had been poking him with a stick, Tidus gave him a weird look. "What is?"

The bluenette looked back the other islanders with a rather unconcerned look in his eye. "It appears I have no memories. I don't know who I am." Back in that strange sea of darkness, he had had some inkling of who he was, but that was long gone now. Now he was just a amnesiac thirteen year old on an unfamiliar island. And for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to worry. He didn't seem to have the capability.

Another boy looked at him. "You sure you can't remember?" The boy had silver hair. He wore a black and yellow shirt and blue pants.

Minato nodded. "Positive. Nothing before waking up here."

The silver-haired boy stared at Minato with a curious expression. Like he was a different species. "What's your name?"

Minato scratched his head. Not much of a point hiding your name when you don't even know who you are.

"Minato. Arisato Minato." Minato then shot a glance around at all of the other kids his age. "Now is the part where YOU GUYS introduce yourselves."

A boy with brown, spiky hair pointed to himself. "My name's Sora."

"Riku." The silver-haired boy introduced himself.

"Tidus."

"Wakka." was the name of the more tropical looking islander.

The next was a girl with short, red-hair. "Kairi." She was rather pretty...although it didn't really do anything for Minato. He just couldn't feel anything towards her.

"And I am Selphie~!" stated a cheerful girl who was perhaps the youngest of the group. She was probably around 11 or 12. Minato merely nodded, committing those names to memory.

"For what it's worth," started Riku, "welcome to our island."

"Hmph." Minato shook his head. "Great. Now how to I get home?"

"Do you even know WHERE your home is?" Selphie asked. It was at that point that Minato was brutally reminded he not only didn't know who he was, but also that he had no idea where he came from.

"Nope." Minato said, still somehow unconcerned. "I don't even know that. Not who I am, not where I'm from, and not even the people I used to know."

Tidus scratched his head. "So where will he stay? We can't just let him be homeless."

Selphie nodded. "Agreed. But we can't keep him at our houses. Our parents probably wouldn't allow it."

Minato's blinked. He didn't like how he was being referred to in the third person. The others then began to discuss among themselves. Apparently he had become some sort of pet they had to find a place to hide secretly. He was being treated like a dog! While he could not feel annoyance, he did not like it...not like he could if he wanted to...he mostly just felt a feeling of not wanting to be treated like that rather than actual dislike.

While they were busy treating him like a household pet, Minato chose to use that time to scan all of his surroundings. Eventually Minato's attention was drawn to a small shack by the waterfall. "Why don't I just stay in there? I mean this is an island, right? I can catch fish for food and get freshwater from the waterfall." While Minato didn't anything from his past life, he was pretty sure he could handle something simple like fishing.

Selphie gave him a worried look. "Are you sure? We could work something else out. I mean-" Minato shook his head.

"There's no need to burden yourselves when such a simple option is open to me." It seemed practical. Trying any other option would just be a waste of time and resources. "All I'd need is a blanket to sleep on and a fishing line. Then I'll be all good. So it looks like you guys are stuck with me for the time being."

Sora pumped his fist into the air. "That means we have another friend!" Minato raised an eyebrow at the term 'friend'. The meaning of the word came easy but the feeling that came to him that was associated with it refused to come to him. He should've been grateful for their help. He should've been happy that he had a friend. But he didn't.

Minato Arisato felt nothing.

Regardless, it would've been rude to ignore them. He bowed, but said nothing, much to the confusion of the others.

* * *

After their plans had been set, the group had dispersed and everyone had gone back to doing what they had been doing prior to Minato's arrival.

Minato sat on a curved palm tree on the small land that was connected to the sea shack by a wooden bridge, the sun beginning to set in the distance. He was just staring up at the sky. Most people would assume that he was thinking about something, but those people would be wrong.

He thought he SHOULD BE thinking about something, but he just felt no need to do such a thing. It was as if all of the curiosity and wish to learn had been sucked right out of him. Even the dream of that sea faded to the back of his mind and into nothingness.

"Thinking about where you come from?"

Minato calmly turned his head to look at the approaching owner of the voice. "Oh hey, Riku. Didn't hear you approaching. You surprised me." He said this all in a deadpan tone.

"Wouldn't have guessed it from the way you talk." Riku pointed out. Minato quickly found himself disinterested with their conversation until his attention was drawn to something Riku was holding. It was a small sword made out of wood. No doubt for some sort of practice.

After a few minutes, Riku finally realized what Minato was looking at and held the sword out in front of him. "I use this to have occasional sparring matches with Sora and the others. Up to today, I have a winning streak of 74...out of 74."

"Impressive," Minato said sarcastically (at least SOMETHING he could still do), "You won against a bunch of pre-teen children." But Minato could understand. Riku had the look of strength. He seemed like someone who would do whatever it took to protect those closest to him. Somehow Minato could sympathize with that...or he would if he could still feel sympathy.

Rather than get angry or look insulted, Riku threw a second wooden sword at Minato, who quickly caught the practice sword in hand. "Well, you seem to think you have a lot of skill to talk like that. So let's see you put your money where you mouth it." He sounded more competitive than anything. Both of them stood on opposite sides of the mini-island, swords ready.

Upon noticing the impending fight, everyone had come and watched from the bridge.

"Let's see what you got." Riku charged recklessly. Minato's eyes narrowed as if staring down and enemy in a duel to the death. He held the sword out to defend and caught the strike on his guard. He pushed Riku back, much to the silver-head's surprise. He had apparently expected brute force to win over all else. Minato followed up with another strike which Riku sidestepped. The two then proceeded to follow up with continued strikes that began to cancel each other out. The sound of their swords clashing against one another was something of a strange melody to Minato.

The feeling of battle seemed so familiar. So rejuvenating to the bluenette that he almost wanted to smile. Almost. He still felt nothing.

But he still felt completely in-control in combat. When Riku tried jabbing his sword at Minato, Minato parried the blow and knocked the blade to the right. Minato feinted left and when Riku brought his sword up to block, Minato's own sword quickly came around the other side, slamming into Riku's side and sending him skidding across the ground.

"Not bad, but I'm just getting started." Riku lunged at Minato, who yet again brought up his sword to block the strike. Apparently Minato had underestimated Riku's strength because the blow easily broke Minato's guard and sent him flying and slamming rather painfully against the tree. Minato quickly recovered, but he placed a hand on his injured back.

Nothing was broken, but it was certainly bruised. He wouldn't be able to lay on his back for a while.

Riku smirked. "Ready to give up yet?" Minato shook his head.

"To quote you earlier, 'I'm just getting started'." He still said it in a deadpan tone of voice, but there was a certain spark in his voice that turned Riku's smirk into a slightly excited smile. Clearly no one had given him such a fight before.

Minato renewed his assault on Riku with his sword, fighting more offensively than he had before. Riku blocked and counterattacked. Minato struck and sidestepped. For quite a while, the two combatants were at a stalemate.

Things finally changed when Minato managed to get one advantage. At the rate he and Riku were fighting, Minato had found himself backed up against the curved palm tree. To some this would be being backed against the corner. To Minato, this was a terrain advantage.

Riku thrusted his sword's tip towards Minato, but Minato jumped backward onto the tree, looking down at Riku and the others. Before Riku could react, Minato jumped over Riku and landed behind him. He once again dodged as Riku twisted around, swinging his sword. The two once again continued swinging, blocking, and then returning the others strike.

Putting as much force into his strike as possible, Minato swung his sword and struck Riku right in his chest, knocking him onto his back. Riku pulled his legs back before leaping back to his feet while simultaneously trying to kick Minato. Minato, however, predicted this and rolled out of the way just in time. Riku stumbled a little as he landed right near the edge of the small island, regaining his balance and turning back to Minato. He tried running and strike at the bluenette, but his fate was already set in stone.

Minato then began to unleash blow after blow upon Riku. Some Riku was lucky enough to block. Others? Not so much. Regardless of whether or not the blows made contact, Riku found himself being pushed back to the edge, stumbling a little at the end. Minato lunged forward one more time, swinging his sword across Riku's side, sending his rival over the edge and into the water below with a loud splash.

Everyone stared in pure disbelief. The girl, Kairi, had her hands over her wide open mouth. Sora's jaw was dropped slightly.

Then all at once, the silence was shattered into a million pieces by the three other islanders.

"Wow! That guy beat Riku on his first try!" Tidus shouted excitedly.

"That was pretty cool, man!" Wakka agreed.

"OMG! He's so hot~!" Minato raised an eyebrow at Selphie who quickly blushed and began to play with her fingers, turning away, Kairi, Sora, and the others snickering behind her back.

Even Riku was wearing a grin as he made his way back up over the side of the small island. "I guess you do have the skill to back up your words. You really let me have it." Minato held out his hand to Riku who, while surprised at the gesture, accepted it gratefully.

Minato quickly pulled the exhausted boy back onto dry land. "Don't sell yourself short. You almost had me there. If it came down to a contest of pure strength rather than strategy, you would win in a heartbeat." Minato wasn't trying to flatter Riku. It was the truth.

While both children had felt the blows from the battle, it could've been noticed that Minato was slightly more bruised and just a bit more sweaty than Riku was. A ring out was only a technical victory, but a victory nonetheless. The euphoria of battle had faded, leaving Minato exhausted.

"I'll remember not to underestimate you next time though," Riku decided. Sora then began to wave his hand up in the air.

"Hey! I wanna try! Let me fight!"

Minato sighed, shaking his head. "I really don't have the energy. Shouldn't you guys be headed home? It's starting to get dark. You're parents might get mad." All of the others quickly looked up at the gradually darkening sky, eyes widened.

"Oh no!"

"We almost forgot!"

"Mom's gonna kill me!" Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus all made their way to the canoes down by the pier while Sora and Riku stared at one another, a similar look of competition on their faces as Riku had previously expressed.

"Think you can beat me even though you have a handicap?" Riku challenged.

"I could beat you even if I had both legs tied behind my back!" Sora replied in good fun.

"Then let's go!" The two rivals then took off, leaving just Minato and the red-haired girl, Kairi, as she had introduced herself. Minato stretched his arms before he noticed the girl staring at him.

"You know...you're a little different from everyone else..." she noticed. Minato shrugged.

"I'd figure that'd be obvious." For a moment, Minato thought it was meant as an insult of some sort.

"...BUT you seem like a pretty good person. Bye!" Kairi then took off after her friends, leaving Minato feeling what may have been confusion.

_You're weird. You're nice. Bye bye! Pretty much sums up that strange encounter..._

* * *

After resting his muscles a bit, Minato chose to take a quick shower, stripping down to his skivvies as he bathed (he wasn't exactly comfortable getting completely naked on some random island), using the waterfall as nature's shower head. He then got dressed yet again in his clothes which would double as his PJ's for now.

Despite how tired he felt, Minato had the odd urge to lay on the beach, looking up at the beautiful night sky.

He couldn't feel anything despite how beautiful the sight was. All of the brilliant lights in the sky shining down on him like Heaven's flashlight.

Minato sighed as he sat up. "You know, it's rude to stare." He turned to see a strange man in a black cloak.

"How sad it is." The person stated. Something about him...something seemed familiar. "A being who has lost their soul is just as empty as one who has lost their heart, only sadder."

Minato shook his head. "I really have no idea what you're talking about." There should've been a question following that, but Minato felt no urge to ask. He didn't really have any urge to ask ANYTHING for some reason.

"You are nothing but a hollow shell. Almost worse than us nothings. No curiosity. No will to do anything other than self-preservation." The cloaked man seemed to almost be talking to himself. "I originally came to inspect the door to this world...but you are not quite ready. You're journey has already begun now that you've taken the first step, but you are far from setting foot outside this prison surrounded by water."

"Prison...?"

"Hmph..." The cloaked man appeared to be thinking. "I wonder...will you live up to my expectations, or will you be smacked back into the dirt?"

Minato cocked his head sideways. "Who are you?"

The cloaked man chuckled a little. "Perhaps not the first question you should be asking. The real question should be who are YOU?" The man held out his hand to Minato. "Tell me. Do you wish to learn that answer? Or do you wish to continue living as this empty husk? The choice is yours. Once the door has been opened, will you take a step towards the truth?"

Minato hesitated. He felt no need to respond. There was no need whatsoever. So what if he was a mindless doll? That would probably be all he would ever be. The truth was meaningless...but yet...something else was compelling him to...

Before Minato could figure out what was forcing his hand, it was already clasped in the hand of the cloaked man. "Yes. I don't want to be in the dark anymore. I WANT TO remember."

Under his cloak, Minato could tell the man was smirking. "Congratulations. The first step has been taken. You will become a powerful player in the events to come. Good luck...Wild Card." There was a flash of light during which Minato had to hide his eyes.

When the light cleared away, Minato was yet again alone, the cloaked man having vanished. His attention was, however, drawn to the floating card in his hand. A tarot card, he remembered.

At the bottom of the card was the number zero and there was a picture of a man holding something over his shoulder. Before Minato could stop himself, he crushed the card in his hands, causing it to turn into sparkling dust that slowly sunk into his skin, leaving no trace.

The real strange part was that Minato felt...different. More...whole.

_The Fool Arcana. The beginning of journeys and a sign of infinite potential._

Minato clenched his fist as he stared back up at the sky.

"I wonder...was the sky back home like this?" To some, it seemed like a simple question...but for the formerly empty boy, it was a sign of change. A sign foretelling what the future held in store.

The first step has been taken.

How much longer until the battles to come take place?

**First chapter of the remake is DONE! I hope you all enjoyed! So yeah...Minato got a piece of his soul back first chapter...this was just to get the ball rolling. I hope you all enjoyed! Keep an eye out for more chapters later on!**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Station of Awakening

**OK, let's consider this as an apology for the mistake I made last chapter which shall be explained right now:**

**I've been thinking about doing a Highschool DxD fic and I've had that chapter done for quite a while, but I don't have enough self-esteem to publish it cos I'm afraid I'll lose inspiration for it...and then we'll repeat that old cycle of me deleting stories and disappointing people...or worse, they don't even like it in the first place! Deleting a story you lost inspiration for but people liked is slightly less of a self-esteem crusher than knowing nobody liked the story in the first place.**

**Been a while, but now I AM BACK! I AM BACK, BABY! Baby, I am back! I am baby back!...I'M BABY BACK RIBS! Back ribs...Mmmmm...Riiiiiibs...**

**Huh? What? Oh...Ahem...On with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except OC's.**

**Chapter 1:**

**The Station of Awakening**

Minato woke up on a strange platform wearing the same uniform he always wore along with his headphones. The platform seemed to be made of stained-glass. Minato couldn't remember how he got here. He stood up and looked around. All around the platform there was nothing but pure darkness. Something about it felt evil to Minato. He was unable to express fear or worry, but he was sure he would if he could.

But he did feel curiosity.

He had no idea where he was or how he got there, but he had this strange instinct to go and find out. He looked around, but saw no sign of life of any kind. It was just him on an empty ceramic platform. Rather than act like an idiot and thrown himself off the edge to see if he was dreaming, Minato instead chose to examine the platform for some clue as to where he was.

The image depicted on the glass was strange. It was a picture of...

"Me?" The bluenette asked in mild confusion. The glass perfectly captured every last detail of his appearance. Even the blue headphones he wore on his head. His eyes were closed and he appeared to have been leaning against some unseen barrier. His image's body was surrounded by smaller circles containing strange pictures.

_Tarot cards_. Minato realized, but unsure how he knew that. He had never seen any since the others back on the island had never deemed it necessary to bring any. He recognized a fair portion of them. The Magician, Empress, Chariot, and...

"The Fool." The circle he stood in front of portrayed as a jester laughing very close to a cliff, accompanied with a dog at his heels. Something about that particular image felt more important than the others.

_"The Fool Arcana."_ spoke a bodiless voice. Minato knew that even if he looked around, he would find no one. _"The representation of _ _innocence, divine inspiration, madness, freedom, spontaneity, inexperience, chaos, and creativity. This Arcana represents 0. Empty yet full of potential. It is the void from which all other things begin."_

Minato found himself entranced by the unknown voice.

_"__So much to do, so little time... Take your time. Do not be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it_?"

Minato shrugged. "Depends on what lies on the road to my destination." All at once, he heard an incredibly loud sound. Like nails scraping against glass. Minato acted on his instincts and twisted around to fight off some unknown enemy, but found nothing...

Well 'nothing' wouldn't technically be correct. What Minato found behind him, stabbed firmly into the the center of the platform he stood on, a sword. Not a plastic sword or some sort of wooden replica. It was around 35 inches of pure steel followed by a guard and a leather hilt.

_"Will you follow this road to the end? Once you take the first step, there is no turning back. You must take all of the responsibility for your actions."_

Rather than answer, Minato calmly strode over to the sword in the middle of the confined area. He grasped the hilt with both hands, ready to pull the sword out.

_"You have one final chance." _The voice warned._ "You can turn back and allows yourself to be carried forward by fate, but you would remain in blissful ignorance of yourself and of the world. If you continue, you will only get this one warning: The road is long and dangerous. It is filled with pain and suffering beyond human comprehension...BUT you will no longer be bound by fate and in the end you may get the chance to remember those you once held dear and protect those you care for today." _

Minato paused his attempt to pull out the sword. This voice certainly sounded like it knew what it was talking about.

He could live in peaceful ignorance for the remainder of his days, but he would never be able to remember who he is. It was be an unbearable state of stagnation. If he chose to continue on the road ahead, he may have a chance to remember and protect those close to him, but he will suffer beyond belief. That is what the voice appeared to be telling him. He didn't quite understand what it meant, but it sounded serious.

Stagnation and peace or suffering and progress?

Minato thought back to the others. Stagnation would mean everything would be the same. He would never have to say goodbye to his friends...but he would never be able to feel the happiness that he knew he should feel at the thought of them. It will always just be that feeling of emptiness and the ever so rare spark of emotion. The path of progress could allow him to feel what he should towards them, but he may lose them in the process.

Minato closed his eyes, trying to find the answer to his question. After several seconds, he opened his eyes with a strange sense of resolve in his heart.

"Even if I do not like what I like at the end of this path, I will continue to seek it to the bitter end. I choose progress!" With a single pull, the sword removed itself from the ground and its owner became Minato. Minato experimentally waved the sword around. The balance was good and it wasn't too heavy. It just felt right in Minato's hand. He held it out experimentally and focused with his mind. Sure enough, it vanished into thin air, awaiting his summons.

_"Congratulations on rejecting fate, Wild Card."_ said the voice in a blank tone, but it left the feeling it was being genuine in its congratulations. The name 'Wild Card' felt oddly familiar, but Minato refused to voice that thought for the moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he could've sworn he saw the strangest blue butterfly. But when he tried focusing on it, it had vanished. _"But be on guard, many enemies lurk in the shadows."_

Minato turned around just in time to see strange shapes crawling across the ground like...

"Shadows." But he wasn't quite sure how he knew that. They were strange, ant-like creatures with antennae and glowing yellow eyes. His instincts took over as one of the Shadows leaped at him, trying to scratch him. The feeling of euphoria Minato felt when he fights returned. Just as it always did when he was sparring with the others, his battle instincts being a piece of his past that he so desperately wanted to remember. Minato sidestepped and summoned his sword out in his hand and spun around, bringing his sword around in a slicing blow, beheading the Shadow. Its body dissolved into some sort of black mist. Several others began crawling towards Minato at much faster speeds. He wasn't one to just stand around, so he acted.

He raised his sword into the air and lunged forward, bringing it down on the next Shadow, cutting it right in half. He swung his blade once to the left and then to right in rapid succession, cutting the other two Shadows into pieces. He began to casually twirl his sword around in his hand, waiting for the next of the Shadows to make their move.

Rather than attack, they all sank into the ground, their flattened images forming a ring around Minato and spreading out. The large puddle of darkness began to spread under Minato's feet. Before he could figure out what was going on, his feet sank into the darkness before he fell all the way through.

* * *

He was falling...falling...still falling...and still falling...

After a good fifteen minutes, Minato wondered if he was even moving at all. Other than wind blowing through his hair, he couldn't see any hint that he was-

BANG.

And then Minato hit the ground head-first. For a moment, the world began to spin. When Minato finally got his bearings, he stood up and noticed he was standing on a glass platform similar to the one he was on before. But instead of Arcana surrounding the larger image of himself, there were pictures of people. People who seemed familiar somehow...

Around twenty of them. Each and every one of them Minato was sure had some sort of connection to him, but he couldn't quite remember how. His heart certainly remember them...it felt...warm. And then there was pain. The strange pain that struck him whenever he remembered that he could not remember his past life. The people he used to know. A feeling of protectiveness surged in his chest when he looked at all of them...well, except for the middle-age man who looked like he would be associated with the Devil. Minato was fairly certain he didn't altogether like that man. Everyone else was fairly alright though.

_Who are they?_ Minato wondered to himself. He stood there, looking at the pictures of the familiar people who caused this feeling inside of him. He only stopped when he looked across the platform. Out of thin air appeared a door. It didn't look all put together as it was transparent.

Yet another question about the architecture of the realm Minato found himself in. He looked around to see if there was some other exit or pathway, but all there was was the transparent door in front of him. Apparently the universe deemed it fit to put him on a deserted island of glass...a prison surrounded by darkness...

"Hm...oddly I don't think this is the worst situation I've ever been in," he thought out loud, "but how do I get out of it?" His question was answered a moment later when a rather colorful treasure chest appeared out of thin air. By this point, Minato was resolved to stop questioning things, so he chose to open up the chest to retrieve a vial of some sort of liquid...

_A potion...I think that's what Sora and Riku called it..._

On instinct, Minato turned around just in time to see one half of the door turn opaque. He placed a finger to his chin.

"Apparently there is some sort of puzzle here..." Proving this theory was a large box that appeared out of nowhere. It deeply resembled that one box on the other side of the island the others used to get up into high up places, usually for a really drawn out game of hide-and-seek. One time Minato had managed to hide for six hours before everyone decided to give up. For some reason, Selphie had deemed it fit to give him a kiss on the cheek as a reward. Why? He had no idea. He assumed it was because they had nothing to give him.

Minato walked over to the box and moved around it, curious as to what purpose it served. Minato blinked before going back to staring at the box. On a whim, he summoned his sword. He unleashed several attacks on the box before it finally shattered into splinters.

When Minato looked back, the entire door had completely turned opaque. He calmly walked over to it and placed his hands on both handles before pulling back with all of his might to pull open the heavy doors. He almost regretted the decision when an unbelievably bright light began to pour out from the door. Minato was engulfed.

* * *

When the light faded, Minato found himself in an oddly familiar area. It was some sort of rooftop. He knew he was outside because he could see the bright blue sky above.

For a brief moment, Minato thought he had somehow made it back home, but then he realized he had never been on the rooftop of anything except that old shack near the secret place. He was most certainly not back on the island.

He soon realized he was not alone. Standing at the other three corners of the roof stood three girls dressed in similar school uniforms: one with short, blonde hair and what appeared to be headphones; a second girl, a brunette, who wore a pink sweater jacket; and the third, a guy this time, with a baseball cap and a silver necklace. He wore what was obviously a male uniform.

All three of them seemed oddly familiar. All of them had this strange blank stare, as if they were all asleep with their eyes open.

_"You have taken one step closer to the light. First, tell me about yourself."_

Minato looked around, hoping to catch some glimpse of the elusive speaker, but found nothing. Seeing no other option, Minato walked up to the first of the three students, the guy with the baseball cap.

He reacted almost immediately. "What's most important to you?" Minato raised an eyebrow. He wondered why a bodiless voice would want to know such a thing and he was certain that the teen in front of him was nothing more than a mouthpiece...an oddly familiar mouthpiece. Minato sighed, certain that thinking about it would not help him reclaim his memories.

"I suppose protecting those who I share a bond with. So far, them being in danger is one of the few things my mind reacts to." It was the most honest answer he could give to the question. The teen seemed to accept this answer as he refused to say something else. Minato experimentally waved his hand in front of his face, but there was no reaction. Minato sighed again. "So much for answers." He did not sound entirely worried though. It was still something he had trouble expressing or feeling at all...although he could feel something reminiscent of what he would expect of that feeling, so perhaps his memories were beginning to return to him...The situation wasn't ENTIRELY hopeless.

Minato moved on to the brunette girl. She acted just as the other guy did and began to speak. "What are you most afraid of?"

Minato tapped his chin. "I'd have to say...indecisiveness. In a battle or high-risk situation, it's either act or be killed." Minato felt it was slightly odd the way he worded it, but he shrugged off the feeling. The brunette didn't speak anymore. Minato then chose to make his way over to the blonde-haired girl.

She seemed so much more familiar than the other two...almost like his connection to her was much more powerful than it was with the other two. He so desperately (or felt something close to desperation) wanted to ask who she was, but he knew he would receive no answer in return. Minato waited for her to ask her question.

"What do you want out of life?" Her voice sounded slightly strange. She spoke with a normal human voice, but it sounded...odd. Like she wasn't exactly breathing outward as she spoke. Minato shook his head, choosing not to dwell on that fact. He answered in the most obvious way.

"To find out who I am. That's what I answered the voice earlier with. I want to remember who I am and I want to be able to truly FEEL again, not these hollow feelings that barely register as human." For a moment, Minato felt a strange pain in his chest. He looked around to see if he had been stabbed in the back, but the only other occupants of the rooftop were standing dutifully in their own little corners.

The voice took that opportunity to interrupt Minato's thoughts yet again.

_"You value friendship. You fear being indecisive. You want to reclaim your past." _The voice paused for dramatic effect. _"The road ahead is long and difficult, young Wild Card. __Your journey begins at dawn. As long as the sun is shining, your journey should be a pleasant one."_

Minato blinked, wondering exactly what that last part had to do with anything.

_"On this road, you will find and repair each of your broken links and find your true self. Do not stray from the path of light and your venture will be successful. The day the door opens is both far off and very near. Do not lose yourself..."_

With those last words of advice, the voice vanished once again. Before Minato could question anything at all, he found himself yet again swallowed by an incredibly bright light. Minato's last thoughts before he was completely enveloped:

_I am really getting sick of this._

* * *

Minato found himself oddly disappointed when he ended up on yet another glass platform just like the many that he had visited previously, but there were a few key differences.

One was that added to the image of himself that was depicted, there was a mirroring image that matched him in every single aspect except one: Its eyes were open. They were also yellow. Minato found himself unsettled by those eyes, as if they were actually staring at him at that very moment, piercing his very soul.

Both images of himself were back-to-back, leaning against one another.

Another difference was that the platform he stood on was slightly dimmer than the first few, giving off a more ominous light than anything.

The last and final thing he noticed that while on the other platform the circles surrounding his image had some sort of picture in them, the smaller circles in the picture were absolutely empty. All blank except for the single one behind him. A small image once again depicting the Fool Arcana.

Something about this place...something felt...off.

To showcase this feeling, a bright light began to shine down from the unseen ceiling.

Minato felt drawn to it. He found his feet slowly moving forward on their own as he walked/stumbled over to the mysterious light that beckoned to him.

_"As you become stronger, so does your darkness. As you take a step towards the light, the greater your Shadow becomes."_

Minato tensed. He spun around on his heels just in time to see his own shadow literally rising out of the ground. It began to grow and expand, changing in shape and size until it had become a colossal being in both size and power. His shadow had become a dark being completely unrecognizable from himself. What would qualify as its hair fluttered about in an imaginary breeze and it had a GIGANTIC heart-shaped hole in its chest.

Only two words described how Minato felt: "Oh...shit." He stepped back so he could marvel at the sheer size of the monster. It was the size of ten of him.

_"Don't be afraid..."_

"Why would I be afraid?" Minato questioned. "I do not have the capacity to feel at all let alone fear...although, I think the feeling in my chest telling me to run away right now may qualify somewhat." He tried to turn around and run away only to find himself almost tripping and falling off the edge of the platform. He then turned back to the gigantic Shadow behind him.

His options were as follows:

A) He could try to fight a colossal beast over twenty times his size with nothing but a sword that is a toothpick in comparison.

B) He could jump off the edge of the platform and plummet to his most certain death.

.

.

.

Neither of those options were very appealing.

He didn't have any more time to consider his options because his next few seconds were completely devoted to dodging the gigantic hand that had tried to flatten him like a pancake.

Minato reacted again as the giant hand came around again to smack him. Wanting to have SOME sort of protection, Minato summoned out his sword, holding it with both of his hands. He then charged the Shadow before he could think to change his mind. Choosing the easiest target, Minato lunged and sank his sword into the giant's shadowy leg. It didn't seem to even notice as shadowy mist began to spew from the wound after Minato removed his sword. The mist began to condense around the Shadow's legs into the smaller, ant-like Shadows that Minato had fought earlier.

One lunged at Minato. With a flick of his sword, that Shadow was once again reduced to black dust. He sidestepped and swung his sword around again, cutting the Shadow's legs off before Minato followed up with another strike to its neck, sending it to meet its fallen comrades.

Several more tried to claw and scratch at Minato, but he twisted, spun, and swung his sword around, leaving the Shadows with no appendages to attack with. It had been during this time that the giant chose to attack. Minato readied himself for it to step on him...

Instead, the giant Shadow pulled back its fist before throwing a punch. Minato ran as fast as his legs could carry him, managing to get out of attack range just in time to avoid the brunt of the attack, rolling forward upon contacting the ground. There was no time to rest, however, as soon as Minato got back to his feet, the monster gathered a large sphere of darkness in its hand shortly before slamming its fist deep into the ground despite the fact it was made of solid glass. A small pool of darkness pooled around the Shadow's arm as more and more of the ant-like Shadows rose from the pool.

Following the same pattern as before, Minato decapitated each and every Shadow that spawned until the giant Shadow pulled back its fist from the ground. Minato didn't even get the chance to even try to stick his sword into its arm because when the Shadow retracted it, it once again threw a fist directed at Minato, who stumbled backward and was knocked onto his rear end by the shock wave of the attack. The Shadow drew back its fist one last time, prepared to end this poor excuse of a fight.

Minato clenched his fists. There was nowhere to run. If he tried moving back, he would fall and if he tried moving in either direction, the shock wave would knock him off the platform or the actual attack would kill him. There was no way out.

The giant's fist came zooming toward him...

_This is it..._

Time seemed to slow down and each second that passed felt like an eternity...

_I really never thought I would die like this..._

The giant's yellow eyes began to glow mockingly...

_Will I really disappear here? Without even having the chance to figure out who I am?..._

The fist was right about to make contact...

_NO!_

Minato lunged forward with his sword with all of his might, sinking his sword all the way into the Shadow's gigantic fist. Minato felt himself being knocked off his feet, but he hung onto the handle of his sword with all of his might. The sword seemed to stick into the Shadow's dark flesh, taking Minato along with it as it brought its hand back towards its body. Ironically, it was the very thing that had tried to kill him that had saved him from falling over the edge.

Minato, still exhausted from the impact of the punch, felt himself losing his grip on his sword. No matter how much he grasped for it, Minato found himself slipping before finally losing the only weapon he had as he felt back towards the unforgiving ground, landing rather painfully onto his back.

The Shadow seemed to have just been getting started. It readied its fist yet again to throw another punch, perhaps completely unaware that Minato's sword was still stuck in one of its knuckles.

Minato had used up any trick he could've thought of.

_"Call upon your Persona! Do it, Minato-kun!"_

Minato blinked at the random yet completely familiar voice. It wasn't one of the guys from the island, but he was certain it was one he knew. One that he had heard rather recently. That of the strange blonde on that rooftop.

Minato held his hand to his chest, feeling warmth at the thought of that word she said. A large power began to surge through Minato's body, granting him a large amount of stamina that he hadn't possessed before. He got back onto his feet, standing tall and proud. The energy building up inside him began to emanate from his very body, coating Minato in a blue aura of energy.

A small tarot card began to spin slowly as it descended downward into the palm of Minato's open hand.

"Per...so...na..." Minato closed his hand, crushing the card in it. The giant's next punch made contact with the impossibly strong metal of a giant harp that acted as Minato's shield. Holding the harp was a giant (not as large as the Shadow 'giant' but still a considerable size) humanoid figure. His body was made of metal and it had what appeared to be a speaker in the small space connecting his upper torso and his lower waist. His head was clearly the only flesh he had. His skin was black and his eyes were blood-red while his hair was as white as snow.

_"After so long, I have once again answered your call, my master."_ The powerful being said to the bluenette, who merely blinked in response.

"Um...right...Well, I can't say I remember you...Orpheus, right?...but could you help me out with this?"

Orpheus nodded. _"As you wish."_ Minato had to admit it: The feeling...the feeling of pure power he felt when he summoned Orpheus

With a casual push, the metallic man knocked the giant Shadow's fist backwards, almost knocking it off-balance. Orpheus held out his harp like a hammer ready to strike. The giant Shadow leaned back as a light began to build up in the center of the gaping heart-shaped hole in its chest. It then began to fire small balls of black flames at Orpheus, who began to fly towards the Shadow, either dodging or slamming away the blasts with his harp. When he got near, he proceeded to slam his harp against the giant's head, causing it to sway dangerously to the side before it regained its balance again. It raised its hand to try to grab Orpheus, but he was already out of the Shadow's grasp.

More and more of the smaller Shadows once again began to form.

Minato inhaled, building up his power to allow Orpheus to attack. "Alright! _Orpheus, __Agi_!" The harp-wielding warrior held out his weapon in front of him before strumming on the strings with all of his might, shooting out a ball of fire that blasted two of the Shadows to dust. Minato didn't stop there.

"_Agi_! _Agi_!_ Agi_! _Agi_!_ Agi_!" Blast after blast of flames rained down from Orpheus's position in the sky down upon the Shadows on the ground, eradicating each and every one of them. The blasts that were used on the smaller Shadows all made impact with the larger Shadow who seemed to stagger after each and every blow.

When the attacks ceased and the smoke had dissipated, the giant Shadow was still standing, but it looked like an extra large piece of rotten Swiss cheese with all of the holes the attacks had burned into it. It was just waiting to be finished off.

"Time to end this! Finish him, Orpheus!" Orpheus did just as commanded and flew towards the giant, pulling back his harp. He spun around, adding force to his final swing when he brought around his harp as it slammed right into the side of the giant's face. _"Agi!"_ Orpheus strummed his harp one last time, sending a final flame flying right into the Shadow's face, causing the beast to cover its burning face.

The Shadow fell to its knees in defeat.

_"I bid thee farewell, my master."_ With that, Orpheus vanished before Minato could command him otherwise. The metal man vanished, leaving Minato alone with the smoking Shadow. With a final attempt at an attack, the Shadow lunged its hand at Minato only to miss by a few feet and land behind him...but that wasn't the end.

A large pool of darkness began to form around where the giant Shadow's flesh made contact with the ground. Eventually, it made its way underneath Minato's feet and he found he was no longer standing on solid ground. His feet sank into the darkness. The more Minato struggled, the stronger the darkness's pull on him became. At some point, he had sank to his waist in his struggling...and he was still sinking.

Minato grunted and groaned as he tried to pull himself out, but his hands kept sinking back into the darkness before he managed to pull them out again. It was like quicksand, only ten times more terrifying. "No...Someone...help..." He grunted out. Most of his torso was already consumed. It had become an incredibly difficult task just to keep his arms above the darkness.

_"-But don't be afraid...You hold one of the mightiest weapons of all."_

_I really wish...you would say something...constructive..._ Minato thought as his head began to be enveloped by tendrils of darkness spreading from the pool below him. The tendrils aided the quicksand-like darkness in pulling him in deeper, leaving him no opportunity to escape.

_"So don't forget: You will help to open the door..."_

Minato's head was completely underneath now. Breathing had become completely impossible...he had survived that impossible battle...come so close to finding a clue as to his identity...only to die now...

_Somebody...please...help me..._

Minato was absolutely sure at that moment...the feeling he felt...

Fear. He didn't want to die.

_Anyone..._

His hand was the only thing that remained above ground...

The last thing Minato felt before he blacked out was something grabbing his hand...

**I AM DONE! After my previous screw-up, I fix my situation with this! The next chapter in this rewrite has been completed! Hoooooraaaaaay~!**

**Wanna know how I'm gonna celebrate?! I'm gonna...go to bed cos it is almost 2:00 AM and I am really tired...so yeah...Minato has Persona...and shit like that...I'm not even trying anymore by this point. The main story is done so...I'm not even putting much energy into this author's note...so...g'night!**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews~!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	3. Chapter 2: The Final Day

**OK! Let us move on with the next chapter of this story! YEAH!...**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

**Chapter 2:**

**The Last Day  
**

Minato immediately shot upright, awaking from his apparent nightmare. His heart was racing and he took several deep breaths to convince himself that his suffocation at the hands of the darkness was but a dream. His sweat began to soak his clothes entirely, causing them to stick to his body.

He held out his hand in front of him, his sweat clearly dripping off of it.

_That...really WAS a dream?...It felt so real..._

Minato shook his real. Every last event in that dream he had had felt so real, but was so ludicrous that he knew it to be false. That divine being...his Persona...Shadows...

Every last one of those words made his head hurt for some reason. Like his brain was trying to find something...like it was trying to find it using bridges that didn't exist...it was difficult to explain this feeling, but Minato eventually chose to try to ignore it.

He looked back down at his utterly soaked clothes. He quickly got up and walked over to the door of the shack that acted as his home on the island and opened the door just a crack.

The was starting to rise. It would be an hour-perhaps two-before any of the others arrived. Plenty of time to bathe himself.

Taking one of his sets of clothes from his pile in the corner, Minato walked out the door and over to the nearby waterfall. He set his clothes close enough that he could reach them as soon as he was finished.

He was extremely grateful to the others for smuggling him clothes that no one would miss. It was the only reason he wasn't wearing the same dirty clothes over and over again.

The cool water from his makeshift shower was extremely soothing in comparison to the heat that built up in that small shed. The others had also been kind enough to bring soaps and shampoos so he could wash himself.

He almost felt a little bad for taking all of their hospitality...well, he couldn't feel BAD bad, but there was a strange, unpleasant heavy feeling in his gut.

Minato sighed. For almost two years, it's been like that. It was like someone bashed the emotional core of his brain with a hammer, breaking it into pieces. He could still feel bits and pieces of what may qualify as emotions, but anything long-term like true love, happiness, or anger all went unnoticed by his mind and body. There was an occasional bout of irritation or satisfaction, maybe even a friendly feeling, but nothing more.

It was actually frustrating sometimes. He sometimes worried (or something close to it) that he was always this way even before he lost his memories. That he was such a cold person like he currently was. It was just so...

"Just who am I?" Minato questioned aloud. He then gained a self-mocking smile. "Although, asking myself...probably makes me the fool." Minato cringed in pain as he grasped the sides of his head. A strange pain ripped through the insides of his head. It lasted for only a second, but it was rather painful.

_What was that...? _

But the thought of that strange pain slipped to the back of his mind, quickly forgotten. He sighed before quickly returning to his bath...only to be interrupted by a loud shrieking noise.

Minato turned to see a young girl about a year or two younger than him with her brown hair styled into one large curl on the back of her head and two more on either side. She also wore her usual yellow dress with the pocket on her chest.

Selphie stared, face beet red and her mouth agape. She looked like she was trying to say something, but she was still frozen. Minato stared blankly before remembering where he was and what he was doing. He turned his head downward to his exposed 'man parts' before looking back up. He quickly sank to his knees into the water.

"Oh dear." was all he said, but just the lightest of pinks could've been seen on his face. Selphie still continued to stare. "You pervert." Minato picked up his towel nearby and threw it at Selphie's face, snapping her out of her Minato-induced shock.

She pulled the towel from her face before swiftly spinning on her heels, turning around. "H-Hold on a second! It wasn't like I was TRYING to see you naked or anything! Who the Hell bathes-"

"The amnesiac boy living on the island, that's who." Minato interrupted her, knowing full well on what she was going to ask. "I've told you guys that I always bathe either early in the morning before you all usually get here or late at night after everyone's left. You guys weren't supposed to come for another hour." Minato mimicked what he thought to be an amused or smug look. "Or did you come here early just to peep at me?"

Selphie's body stiffened. Minato couldn't see her face, but he was certain that it was even redder than before.

"N-No! It's n-nothing like that! It was just an accident!"

"Then why are you still staring?" Minato countered. Sometime during their conversation, Selphie had 'accidentally' forgotten that Minato was in his 'birthday suit' and had turned around to face him, getting a good look at him once again. She quickly turned around again.

"S-Shut up! I WASN'T PEEPING!" Selphie than ran off to God knows where, leaving Minato in blissful silence to continue his bath. Minato smiled oh so slightly.

It had been small, but he believed that what he was feeling may have been amusement.

Yet again, the thoughts of who he was fled to the back of his mind, leaving Minato feeling as if he had forgotten something.

* * *

An hour or two after the 'Selphie being a peeping tom' incident, everyone else had also started showing up one by one.

Wakka and Tidus went off, doing their own thing while Selphie (who for some reason refused to look at Minato) simply sat at the pier, looking out at the ocean.

However, Minato, Riku, Sora, and Kairi had more productive ways to spend their time.

It had been a project they had been discussing for a long time, and at long last, they would carry it out.

Operation: Build-A-Raft-And-Leave-The-Island. Minato sighed every time he heard the name of the plan. He had to make a mental note to make sure Kairi never names anything again...EVER.

While he went searching all over the island, he had to make a list of things they could obtain from the island and things the others had to get from home to make the journey survivable.

First they would collect wood and other materials they'd need to build the raft, and then after completing said raft, they would need to start collecting provisions to keep from dying of either starvation or thirst on their journey that would take an unknown amount of time. After that, it was just the matter of sailing forward until they finally reached another land different from theirs. Minato had to admit it left a satisfying feeling at the thought he would soon be able to explore what's out there.

Perhaps that's why he seemed to have a stronger bond with Riku, Sora, and Kairi. They all shared the same curiosity as well as the wish to see what lies beyond their oh-so small world...but Minato's wish to leave was far stronger than and of theirs. He wanted much more than just to see new places. He wanted to find out who he was, why he ended up on that island, and how he got there. He also wanted to know, despite having something resembling friendship with the others, why out of all of the worlds out there, he ended up on the one he did.

A prison surrounded by water would be what the heart seeking freedom would call it.

Minato was grateful to everyone, but he felt something that may have resembled emotion...He felt...trapped. He was always visited by his friends, but he would never be allowed to leave the island. Nobody knew and probably didn't care who he was. They were free to come and go as they pleased, but Minato could not. To him, the island was almost literally a prison.

When the others came, he put on a mask to face them, to hide this feeling he felt, but when they left, it always returned, leaving him feeling emptier than he had before.

But he didn't know anywhere else. He had such mixed feelings about leaving. On one hand he would find the freedom he craved, but on the other, there's a chance there would be no going back once he took that first step. He would never see the island again. No more hanging out with his friends. That is what he risked.

...but he would continue to trudge forward. He wanted to see the future.

_What lies beyond the door..._

Minato frowned. He was unsure where that thought came from...but something about it sounded familiar...

His thoughts were interrupted by a not-so-odd yet annoying sight. There was Sora.

Sleeping.

On the beach.

While everyone else was busy WORKING.

_When did he even find the time to do that? He had only been on the island for thirty minutes. And ten of those was spent discussing our game plan._

Before Minato could go to rudely wake up the spiky-haired boy, his other red-haired friend beat him to the punch.

Kairi bent over so she was looking right at Sora's face, no doubt wanting to give him a fright when he woke up, looking up at her.

Needless to say, it worked. At least five minutes later, Sora shot up like he had received an electric shock. He was speaking frantically about something Minato couldn't hear from where he stood. He figured he'd might as well see why those two slackers weren't working.

"Yo. G'morning." Minato greeted. They both turned to face the approaching bluenette.

"Oh, good morning, Minato." Kairi greeted in return, smiling slightly. Sora seemed unhappy about something.

"What's wrong with you?" Minato asked bluntly.

Kairi shook her head. "Sora's just been dreaming again. No big deal."

"I'm telling it wasn't a-Ouch!" He was silenced when Kairi smacked him slightly on the back of the head.

Minato sighed, shaking his head. "You know, if you guys don't start helping out soon, we might just leave you behind. I mean, me and Riku are the only ones working on the raft as it is."

"Good to see I haven't been forgotten in this."

Speaking of the devil.

Riku walked towards them calmly, no doubt the last of the materials they needed for the raft already gathered.

"But I suppose most of the credit would go to you." It was true. Minato had spent most of the previous night looking for materials before he went to bed. It was only today that they finally gathered everything. "You seem more determined to finish this than anybody."

Minato shrugged. It wasn't determination exactly, but it was something like it. It was the inner drive he had to seek the possibilities that existed once they left.

Sora scratched his head while Kairi giggled.

"OK. We'll finish it together. I'll race you!" Riku and Minato sat in the sand next to Sora.

"What? No way."

Minato gave what he thought to be a smirk. "He's right, Kairi. I mean it's obvious I would beat them anyway."

""What?"" Riku and Sora asked in perfect unison.

"Well my win-lose ratio in all of our contests are clearly in my favor, does it not?" Minato stood and stretched his arms. "You guys have only won a handful of times, so it's no wonder you don't want to waste your-" And then Sora and Riku were off, having kicked off the race. "-energy." He shrugged before turning to Kairi. "Whatever happened to 'ready, set, go'?" Rather than answer, the red-haired girl laughed before taking off after the other two boys.

Minato's mouth twitched, but no matter how much he wanted it, it firmly refused to form a genuine smile.

_Well, while they're busy assembling the raft, I should prepare our rations._

And that is exactly what Minato went to go do in the opposite direction the others were headed. At some point during that day, Sora would help him out by gathering some of the rations. Minato saw him go into the secret place at some point, but he came out with the strangest expression. Minato thought about asking Sora about it, but then thought better of it. It was Sora's business, not his.

And so their final day on the island passed as such.

* * *

Once all of the serious work was completed, the trio of friends gathered on the smaller island of the shore of the larger island.

Sora and Kairi sat on the curved palm tree while Riku simply leaned his back against it. Minato sat on the ground, his legs dangling over the edge of the miniature island.

"So Kairi and Minato's homes are out there somewhere, right?" Sora asked, breaking the silence.

Riku shrugged. "Could be. We'll never know by staying here."

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora's questions were beginning to sound slightly pessimistic.

"Who knows. If we have to, we'll think of something else."

"We'd better be prepared for when we set sail." Minato stated. "Who knows what we may face out there. I highly doubt that some of those worlds out there are anything like ours." He took a deep breath and exhaled. "I suppose we should just wait and see."

"Suppose you get to another," Kairi started, "what would you do there?"

It seemed as if this is the first time this occurred to Riku. "Well, I haven't really thought about it. It's just...I've always wondered why we're here, on this island. If there are any worlds out there, why'd we end up on this one? Suppose there are other worlds out there, then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

Minato nodded. "I suppose, but maybe it's a mixed blessing..." Everyone turned to him as he calmly looked out towards the sunset. He had an unreadable expression on his face. "...if we hadn't all ended up on this world, we never would've met and we may have never started to ask these questions in the first place. We all would've remained in ignorance." Minato closed his eyes. "But if we want to know the answer to that question, we'll just have to go out there and find out. Sitting around this island will never answer a single question." Everyone thought about what he had said and nodded, agreeing with some of his logic.

"You two have really been thinking a lot about this." Kairi noticed.

"Thanks to you and Minato." Riku replied. "But I guess you've been thinking about it even more, huh, Minato?"

The bluenette didn't reply. Riku blinked. "Right?" He asked again.

Everyone began to feel slightly worried when Minato refused to open his eyes after several minutes. He wasn't asleep. He would never fall asleep in such a precarious position. After several more minutes, he finally opened his eyes, exhaling.

Rather than answer Riku's question, Minato instead chose to turn his gaze towards the sky.

"I wonder...is this sky the same as where I came from?" Minato asked. To who the question was directed towards remained to be seen.

Sora stared in confusion. "Well, I wouldn't know the answer to that question...I really don't know."

Minato calmly shook his head. "That's the same answer I've come up with every time I've asked myself that question." Minato scooted backwards before standing up and brushing himself off. He turned back towards the sunset, as if hypnotized by its fiery beauty. "For over two years that question has gone without a true answer...maybe once we set sail, I'll find that answer..."

It then struck the other three islanders that perhaps he had been thinking about it much more than they thought.

Kairi smiled. "You know. I wouldn't mind seeing what the sky of your home looks like either."

"Count me in too!" Sora chipped in.

"It could pass the time." Riku agreed.

Rather than seeming reassured by their words, Minato held his hand over his heart, seeming even more uncertain than before. "If we do find where I came from...I wonder how the people there would think when I came back...Would they have missed me? Would they have even noticed I was gone?" Minato held out his hand in front of him, looking down at it as if expecting it to do something. "Would they even recognize me...? I have no doubts that I'm far from the person they knew...this poor replica of that person I used to be..."

Now the others recognized what Minato was feeling. He wasn't just thinking, he was anxious.

He was afraid.

The bluenette may never admit or acknowledge it, but he was afraid of what would happen when he returned home. Afraid that he wouldn't even recognize his home.

"Do you regret it?"

The question Minato asked had caught everyone off guard.

"What?" one of them asked, although nobody quite remember who.

"Do you guys regret meeting me?" The question just seemed so out of character for Minato that they were unable to even speak for several minutes.

"W-Where did that come from?!" Sora finally asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

Minato didn't turn to face him. "...Ever since the day we've met...I...I just haven't been altogether warm as you guys were to me...No matter how much I wanted to, I just couldn't feel anything...I tend to be overcritical about things, I'm not very fun to be around, and you guys always end up having to take care of me in the end and I can't even feel happy about it even though you are the only friends I have or remember...Do you regret meeting such a person?" If they had seen Minato's face, they would've noticed the lone tear rolling down the left side of his face.

"As if." was Riku's immediate answer five seconds later. Minato turned in surprise to see his silver-haired friend grinning.

"Yeah. You're our friend." Sora agreed, smiling as well. "That's why we helped you out."

"And even if you don't think so, your heart knows it's true," Kairi said, following her friends' lead. "You say you don't feel anything, but that's not true."

Sora got up from his seat and walked over to Minato, placing a hand on the bluenette's shoulder. "If you didn't feel anything, why would you be crying and apologizing about it like this?"

Minato jumped. Whether it was because he hadn't realized he was crying or he wasn't aware he was able to cry was known nor cared about. He still didn't turn around to face the others. "Sora, Riku, Kairi...thank you." He seemed much calmer than he had been before.

They all laughed a little, happy their friend was starting to feel better. ""Don't mention it.""

Minato quickly wiped his tears on the sleeve of his jacket before he finally turned to face his friends. He wasn't smiling, but it was clear he wasn't sad anymore. He bowed. "Sorry. I guess I kinda killed the good mood earlier." He stood up, a much softer expression on his face. "This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Tomorrow we'll finally be leaving. We'll go find what's out there. See all there is to see. We should all be smiling."

"Then you first." Minato blinked at Sora's statement.

"What?"

"Come on! If you want to prove you've cheered up and if we really should be smiling, then you should start us off!"

Riku and Kairi snickered a little.

Minato scratched the side of his face nervously. "Well, I-uh..." Minato couldn't help but appreciate the irony that nervous was one of the few emotions he could feel in full. The request was so difficult because in all the time Minato had been on the island, he hadn't given a genuine smile and a smirk would not satisfy the request. Eventually, he noticed everyone looking at him. He sighed in defeat. "Fine...just..." He sighed yet again. He mentally counted to three before bowing his head, trying to force his facial muscles to form the expression he wanted to form.

When Minato finally brought his face up to show his results, the other three broke out into laughter.

His smile looked absolutely ridiculous and clearly forced, like he didn't know how to really smile (and he didn't).

Minato sighed once again (something that was beginning to become a very bad habit). "Oh give me a break." But on the inside, he felt relieved. He also felt something else. A warm emotion he couldn't place. He couldn't figure out what it was, but he knew one thing it meant: as long as he and his friends were together, everything would be alright.

* * *

After their little meeting, everyone had decided it was time to head home for the night. Sora, Riku, and Kairi departed in their boats shortly after Wakka and Tidus, leaving Minato alone as far as he knew...but he felt like he was forgetting something.

He remembered what he was forgetting (or rather _whom_ he was forgetting) when a certain girl wearing a yellow dress slowly walked up to him after everyone else had finally departed.

"M-Minato!"

Minato turned around to face a slightly blushing Selphie. "Oh, Ms. Hentai, how are you?"

"H-Hentai?!" She shrieked in outrage. "I told you! That was an accident!" Minato didn't laugh. He didn't have the ability to.

"What is it?"

Selphie seemed to remember what she wanted to talk about because she started to nervously shuffle her feet and seemed to be twiddling her fingers. "W-Well...I-I heard you and the others w-would be leaving tomorrow..."

Minato nodded in confirmation.

"S-So I realized that i-if you l-leave, it could be a l-long time before I saw you again." Minato couldn't help but subconsciously notice that she said 'you' rather than 'you guys'. "So I-I thought that i-if I had something to s-say, I s-should say it w-while I still have the chance. Something important."

Minato raised an eyebrow. "Important? What is it?"

"Well...I...uh..." Her words dissolved into stutters and mumbling as if she had forgotten to speak any human language.

"Well?" Minato asked impatiently. "Just say it."

"I-I...Iloveyou!" Minato blinked, unable to comprehend what she said due to the fact she said it all in one breath.

"What?"

Selphie calmed herself by taking a deep breath before releasing it, pointing at Minato with a determined expression.

"I'm only gonna say it one more time, so please listen!" Minato nodded. "I...I love you, Minato Arisato!"

Minato blinked, still not comprehending her words. "Eh?"

Selphie's face was a deep shade of red. "I said what I meant! I am in love with you, Minato! I've been in love with you ever since the day we met!" Minato had to cover his years due to the fact she was shouting by that point.

Minato placed a finger on his chin.

_Love? That's that romantic feeling that guys and girls have for one another, right?...Hmm...Now that I think back on it, she may have been giving me some signals...Like that Valentine's day she made that chocolate for me only to have Riku and Sora accidentally knock it into the sand during one of their sword fights...boy, was Selphie pissed... _Minato shivered at the thought of the punishment his two friends received for their transactions. It was something he feared to even think about. An execution.

"Well?" Selphie asked, interrupting Minato's thoughts. He suddenly remembered she was standing right there.

"Well what?"

Selphie placed her hands on her hips. "I need to know how you feel about me, dummy!"

Minato opened his mouth, but time seemed to slow down.

_OK. What I say now could either put things back to normal or completely shatter my friendship with Selphie_ _forever. _He thought to himself._ I got to think this through carefully. How do I let her down gently?_

For Minato, it could've been minutes or hours as he carefully thought out his answer to Selphie's feelings.

He eventually narrowed it down to the following:

A) Outright reject her.

B) Run away.

or C) Just tell her the truth but put it in a way so she knows that it's not her so much as it's him.

Option C won in the end.

Minato sighed. "Selphie, listen. I just...I...I don't know." He felt ready to smack himself before he looked at Selphie. She was waiting for him to continue. Minato sighed again.

_No turning back now._

"I can't respond honestly to your feelings as I don't know my real self. I don't even know who I am. For all I know, there could've been a girl back home who I liked but I can't remember. I just...I just want to get my thoughts in order before I make any kind of commitment like this. You're a nice girl as well as one of the few friends I have, but I just can't return your feelings. But, even if I did have my memories, I don't think I'd want to jeopardize our friendship by doing something like this. I'm sorry, but for now I have to say I do not feel the same way." Minato rubbed the back of his neck. "I hope you can understand."

It was more like he could not acknowledge her feelings at all. This whole thing he was telling her was practically a lie.

"I understand, Minato." was her reply after several agonizingly long minutes. Minato felt all of the tension leave his shoulders.

"You do?"

Selphie nodded before looking at Minato, smiling. "I understand that I have to work twice as hard! Harder than any other girl you used to know in order to secure your heart as mine!"

Minato blinked. "Eh?"

"So mark my words Minato Arisato: Someday you will return my feelings! I will make you! This I swear!"

Minato sighed, seeing this was a better ending than anything. "Whatever floats your boat."

Selphie winked. "So be sure to return from your journey safe and sound. Because by then, I'll be the girl you'll definitely fall in love with!" Before Minato could react, she ran forward and clamped her hands down on his shoulders. "But for now, I'll leave you with this." She leaned forward and gently pressed her lips against Minato's cheek before pulling away and running back to her boat, returning to the mainland.

Minato was left staring long after she had gone...

After she had kissed him on the cheek, Minato just continued to think about it because...

...he felt nothing.

It was a terrible feeling. One of his friends had just confessed to him and...and he didn't know which was worse: The fact he didn't return her feelings at all or the fact he couldn't feel anything about them. He had enough emotional capacity to care for her as a friend, but he lacked the ability to feel anything more.

With these thoughts on his mind, Minato returned to his shack and tried to go to sleep.

* * *

Minato was unable to fall asleep during his attempt.

He just kept thinking about all the events that had transpired.

Even though his friends assured him he could truly feel, his doubts just continued to return and suffocate him. If he could feel sad about the thought of not being able to feel, was he truly feeling? Or was he simply mimicking emotions just as he did whenever he faked a smirking or confident expression.

Minato turned on his side, facing a small picture frame next to the futon that served as his bed.

It was a picture of him, Riku, Sora and Kairi all together on the smaller island.

Kairi was in the middle, laughing a little as Riku and Sora began to goof around, fake wrestling one another on her left while Minato stood to the far right of the picture, almost leaving the frame. He thought fondly of that photo. They had taken it on what would qualify as his birthday as it was the anniversary of the day he arrived on the island.

The frame itself had been a present as well. A memento of all of the two/three years they spent together.

Minato's words from earlier continued to ring in his ears.

_"Tomorrow we'll finally be leaving. We'll go find what's out there. See all there is to see."_

Minato couldn't let go of that small, exciting thought.

He would finally be able to go find out where he came from. Why he came to the island. Who he was. Those thoughts continued to swirl about in his head, refusing to let him sleep.

Minato only became aware of the weather when he heard the booming thunder.

It was inconvenient by that point as Minato had finally managed to get to a state of being half asleep.

"Ugh...A storm..." Minato laid back down and closed his eyes. "What a drag...it might mess with our schedule tomorrow morning..." And then realization struck him. "The raft!" Minato quickly shot out of his bed and threw on his clothes hastily before darting out the door.

He couldn't believe what he saw. The sky...it was...

It was pitch black. It was unusual for a storm and Minato was pretty sure the gigantic, black orb in the sky was not normal either.

Bit and pieces of sand rose up into the air, slowly absorbed by the orb as bit-by-bit it began to expand.

_What..._

Minato instinctively turned around to see familiar shapes rising from the ground. Black, ant-like creatures with menacing, yellow eyes. They slowly began to crawl towards Minato, almost taunting him.

Minato, having no weapon to fight back, slowly backed up until his back was to the shack.

_What is this?_

More and more of the Shadows began to rise from the ground, turning their attention to the defenseless bluenette.

"What...Just what the Hell is going on!?" He felt afraid. Afraid of his confusion, afraid of dying, and more importantly, afraid of the dark creatures that were no doubt about to kill him.

_If you want to live, call my name, oh comrade of my former wielder._

Minato felt a familiar rush of power as his body immediately began to glow. He looked up to see a strange tarot card slowly falling from the sky into his hand.

The Shadows leaped at Minato.

His instincts over and his fist tightened around the card once it made contact.

"PERSONA!"

Minato wasn't even aware he had his eyes closed tightly until he opened them. And he was surprised by the sight he saw.

All of the Shadows had been split in half shortly before what remained of their bodies faded into darkness.

What was more surprising was the being who had saved Minato.

It was a large, humanoid creature. It was slender and was draped in a black trench coat and wore a a bright, white mask with two long tails connecting to the mask almost resembling a headband with two spikes protruding from the top. It carried a long naginata and had blade under its feet.

_"I art thou and thou are I. I am the second of the Fool Arcana to answer your call, young Wild Card. I am Izanagi. I as well as Orpheus shall now answer you call. Wield us as you see fit."_

Minato then turned back towards the severely darkened island. More Shadows began to rise from the ground and they didn't show any signs of stopping soon.

"Well then, Izanagi. I believe we may as well take out the trash as Tidus would say." Minato clenched his fists. He had no idea what was going on, but he knew that his dream from before had been an omen. Whatever was going on, he had to stop it. He had to find out who was causing this phenomenon...and why he felt so nostalgic at the thought of the power he had obtained: Persona.

"Let's go!"

**After so long, I am finished. The Destiny Island arc is almost finished! Minato is slowly beginning to regain his emotions, but it's a slow going process...hey..wanna know what? You guys...you're lucky...I almost didn't get this finished today and then you would have had to wait like another day or two until it came out...cos I'm not gonna have internet access tomorrow cos I got stuff I gotta do and stuff...I'm sorry, it's 1 AM and I'm really tired now...I think I'll just go to bed...I hope y'alls enjoyed!**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	4. Chapter 3: Goodbye Island

**Time for the conclusion of the Destiny Island arc! And then we move on to the other stuff!...Well. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except OC's who may exist at a later date.**

**Chapter 3:**

**Goodbye Island**

"Izanagi!"

On Minato's command, the giant swordsman swung his sword-like naginata at the incoming Shadow, cutting it in half.

The onslaught was endless. Every time Minato had his Persona, Izanagi, destroy one of the Shadows, another came to take its place. It was one after the other. And the sphere in the sky only seemed to be growing larger as time passed, leaving Minato with a clock that was about to run out. He had to find the cause of this and fast.

He was certain he would not like the consequences if that sphere was allowed to continue growing and expanding.

Minato attempted finding a possible source of the Shadows' appearance and the giant, dark sphere, ending up searching around the island, destroying any Shadows that got in his way. None of it made a difference though. He was no closer to finding the culprit behind this and each Shadow destroyed allowed one, two, and sometimes even three more take its place.

When Minato arrived at the other side of the island, he was only mildly relieved to find their raft laying in the sand in one piece, its sail close to being blown away by the intense wind.

Minato scratched his head. "Damn. This isn't good." Izanagi floated carefully behind him, ready to take on any approaching threat. He bit the tip of his thumb as a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "There's also the others to think about." Minato shot one glance over his shoulder into the sky where the giant sphere appeared to have grown even larger than a few minutes ago. "I highly doubt it will stop just at the island. It will, if it hasn't already, spread to the mainland if I don't stop whoever is responsible."

Izanagi didn't respond as his master continued talking to himself.

Their minor peace was short-lived before more shadowy figures began to rise from the ground. This time, mixed in with the weaker seeming ant-like Shadows, there were Shadows who bore a striking resemblance but instead wore knight helmets on their heads. They also had a strange heart emblem on their chests.

"Shit. Izanagi! Zio!" Izanagi pointed his naginata towards the Shadows and let loose a mighty bolt of electricity, hitting the first Shadow and turning it into a familiar, shadowy dust. Several other of the smaller Shadows launched themselves at the duo before Izanagi swung his naginata left and right in rapid succession, decapitating each and every one of them in various ways.

There was no nostalgia in this fight like there was in his sparring matches with Riku and the others. This was a live or die situation. And it might not just be him who died.

The lives of every last one of the people Minato has come to know as a friend were at stake.

The next knight Shadow that leaped at Minato was stabbed through the chest by Izanagi.

When no more Shadows appeared, Minato released a sigh of relief. It was only now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off that a wave of nausea washed over him. Before he could stop himself, Minato sank to his knees and then on all fours.

_What is this?!_

Without his order, Izanagi vanished behind him. The strain on his body had lessened somewhat, but the nausea refused to fade away. Minato clenched his teeth as he tried to force himself up right, managing to do so after several minutes, but ending up drenched in sweat as if he had run a marathon. He barely had the energy to get back on his feet.

Minato opened his hand out in front of him. Each of his fingers were trembling, as if they were having difficulty following Minato's commands.

_This exhaustion...could it be a side effect of using that power?_

Minato resisted the urge to swear. He was once again weaponless. He could only hope he would regain his strength before any more enemies appeared.

Before Minato could take a step forward, he felt a dizzy spell, falling backwards onto his hindquarters. Minato wiped the sweat off his forehead.

While he possessed the ability to think out strategies, he lacked the same raw strength and stamina Riku and Sora possessed. This was easily proven by the fact Minato couldn't stand for longer than ten seconds before gravity (the smug jerk) helped his exhaustion in the task of knocking him down.

The world seemed to be spinning around him.

Minato took a deep breath before reaching into his pocket, praying that he didn't empty the contents prior to going to bed.

Sure enough, he was able to pull out a small vial from the deepest part of his jacket pocket. It was filled with some sort of strange, green liquid. Minato's expression soured at the sight of it, but he knew he had no choice.

Using one of his hands to support himself, Minato popped the top off with his mouth and spit it into the sand. He swallowed a bit before he placed the lip of the bottle to his own lips shortly before he started chugging down the contents of the vial that was supposedly a 'Potion'.

It tasted awful. Like smelly gym socks mixed with sour milk. The taste almost made Minato want to gag, but he managed to keep it down.

After several seconds, Minato let out a relieved sigh once the last of the contents had gone down his throat.

He then waited, expecting the potion's effect to activate and rejuvenate him...He waited...and waited...and waited...

After ten minutes, he was pretty sure the effects wouldn't be kicking in anytime soon. Minato growled in annoyance as he looked at his still-quivering body.

_What is this? Potions are supposed to restore the body regardless of how severe its loss of health is. If this was merely my lacking stamina, it should've been fixed._ Then a thought struck him. _Perhaps this exhaustion...perhaps it's not a drain of the physical variety...I've only heard of it, but is this truly magic?_

Minato swore mentally (a word that was so inappropriate, it would not do well to be spelled out). "I don't have time to wait until my power's restored...there's gotta-"

Minato almost lost his balance again as a large earthquake began to shake the very ground he stood on. It seemed the world itself was shaking. Minato's vision was horribly limited at the moment, he could see the ocean around the shore beginning to drain, leaving dry cracks in the earth. Bits and pieces of the ground began to be torn up by an unknown source.

He found that source when he turned yet again and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

In the ten/twenty minutes he hadn't been looking, the giant sphere of darkness had nearly tripled in size. Large enough that it could crush the entire island in one go. Minato flinched as he saw large planks of wood being swallowed by the giant vortex. Minato recognized one of the planks because it had his initials carved into it...it was one of the planks from his shack.

"Well aren't I glad I didn't stay there." He said aloud to nobody in particular. He stumbled shortly before swearing yet again. "It's no good. At this rate, I'll be killed by those Shadows before I can figure out how to stop this. The only thing I can do is try to use the raft to get to the mainland and try to warn people."

Minato turned around to leave when something caught his eye. He spun around yet again and his eyes scanned the shoreline. He found nothing in the pitch black darkness except-

"Hey!" Minato called out. Near the end of the shoreline stood a lone figure. Minato couldn't get a good look at him, but he could make out his black cloak and the hood covering his face. He turned his head slightly to face Minato, but said nothing in response. Minato frowned. "I said HEY! You gotta get outta here! It's not safe!" The figure turned completely towards Minato, and he stumbled back a little. Even from the distance between them, he could make his eyes.

His glowing, piercing yellow eyes that were staring right at him.

All Minato did was blink and suddenly the figure was right in front of him, his eyes staring directly into his own. It didn't look any less terrifying from up close. They looked like they could tear Minato apart and pick through his very soul if it so desired.

Minato was also able to just barely make out a strange grin on the person's face.

"The door has opened." His voice sounded strangely familiar. Minato was taken aback.

"What?"

"The door has opened, Fool!" The figure gestured to the giant sphere of darkness in the sky.

"It is too late to stop the events that have been put in motion!" He then let out a wicked laugh of amusement. His voice betrayed a sick sense of humor. "It's only a matter of time before this world is consumed by the darkness! Lost to the endless abyss from which it spawned!"

Minato had no real idea what this stranger was talking about, but one thing was made clear.

"You," he uttered, stepping away from the man with the strange eyes, "You did this, didn't you?" He didn't bother to hide his contempt for the man in front of him. The man merely smirked in response, providing enough of an answer to draw conclusions from.

"Well, technically this would have happened at some point. This world would've fallen to the darkness at some point anyway regardless of whether or not anyone interfered. I just helped the boss man speed things up a little." The black coat wearing man gestured to the sand floating away from the ground around him.

Minato, still swaying slightly, clenched his fists. "Whoever you are, you'd better stop this right now."

This command was answered by another round of maniacal laughter from the mystery man. He then looked at the possibly angry expression on Minato's face. "Oh wait, you're serious? In that case, let me laugh even louder!" The laughter returned, the stranger seeming to put twice as much volume into it. He only stopped after several more minutes, clutching his aching stomach. He took a deep breath before he continued to speak. "Even if I DID want to stop this marvelous event, I can't. The door has been opened and there ain't no closing! So I hope you had fun cos the next stop is the grand world of the Heartless!"

_Heartless? Is that what those Shadows called?_

Minato took a solid stance, his fatigue giving away to another helping of adrenaline. "I really have no idea what you're talking about, but I won't let you destroy this island. This is my home, where I met and hung out with my friends. I'll protect it no matter what!" A large amount of power exploded from Minato as he began to surpass his limits.

There was no doubt in his mind that he may die for overusing his power, but if doing so would protect the people he cared about, it would be worth it.

Minato closed his eyes tightly, willing Izanagi to the back of his mind and a different being to the forefront.

A familiar tarot card slowly floated down into the palm of Minato's hand. "ORPHEUS!" He crushed the card in his hand as a familiar, harp-wielding man/machine appeared in the air above him. Minato felt a smirk creeping onto his face.

With Orpheus...with this power, he could easily crush this cloaked freak. "Go get'em, Orpheus!" The Persona charged forward, his harp in his hands before swinging it forward, clashing into an unknown force. Minato's eyes widened. "What?!"

The cloaked figure pushed forward ever so slightly. He may as well have charged like a bulldozer for all of the damage it did. Orpheus was sent flying backwards, Minato unwillingly mimicking his Persona and being sent flying onto his back.

Minato managed to force himself back onto his feet, slightly winded, Orpheus copying yet again by floating up into the air above him. From his position, he was able to catch a good look at his opponent's weapon.

It was a longsword. It had a black, leathery hilt, but the blade itself...it clearly wasn't anything human-made. The metal practically radiated darkness and there were also strange slit-like pictures...it was only when those slits opened up and stared at him that Minato realized they were eyes. Glowing, red eyes.

The just aura surrounding that sword made Minato's legs like jelly...although that could've been his fatigue kicking back in.

The cloaked figure grinned. "You like? Forged from dozens of hearts and souls~! I call it my Lil' Reaper-sama~!" He then brought his blade to his face before sticking out his tongue and licking the flat of the blade affectionately. Once he was finished, he pointed his sword at Minato. "And once I kill you, your heart will join those of this sword!"

"I'd like to see you try." Minato taunted. "Alright, Orpheus. Let's turn this up a notch." Orpheus charged towards the cloaked figure once again. "Agi!" Orpheus strummed the strings of his harps, firing off a small ball of flame at Minato's enemy.

The cloaked figure swung his sword around, making contact with and dispelling the ball of fire into small sparks. Minato's eyes widened before narrowing.

"Just give up, Fool~! A weakling like you has no hope in this situation~!" He once again pointed his sword towards the powerless bluenette. "THIS is what real power is!" A dark-red aura began to coat the cloaked figure's sword. Minato could feel the pressure in the air increase dramatically. He raised his blade into the air...and then swung downward. At the moment his slash came down, all of the power condensed at the tip of the blade, creating a crescent wave of red energy that...missed Minato.

The blast was massive. Rather than hit the bluenette head on, the blast easily missed Minato by several inches, creating a large fissure in the ground beside him. It was at least several feet deep. If the attack had made contact, Minato would've been reduced to nothing more than a pile of ashes if anything remained at all.

That hadn't made it any less terrifying.

It wasn't a slip or lack of control.

That person had missed deliberately. He had been toying with Minato and it was highly doubtful that that was the most power he possessed. If he wanted to, that man could kill Minato before he even realized what was going on. He was...he was...

"Sorry, small fry. You're a few decades too early to be trying to take me on. You have nothing compared to the power you used to hold." The cloaked figure sighed, as if a little bored. "It's actually uninteresting when you're hopelessly outmatched." He then began to wave Minato off. "Why don't you just run off and wait for your world to end? Don't go wasting my time."

Minato clenched his fists. He was trembling. It wasn't from fear or despair...but from anger.

This person was belittling him. It was irritating...that feeling of helplessness. The feeling that his friends would get hurt because there was no way he could defeat the person before him. If what he was saying was true, then the whole world would've been destroyed because of his weakness.

It was so irritating.

The cloaked figure was about to turn around and leave when the very ground began to shake.

It was far too early for the entire world to be collapsing completely just yet. So...

He turned around to face Minato and he actually blinked several times.

The power surrounding Minato had flared up like a forest fire. The very sand around him began to be thrown about from the raw energy he was emitting. If the world wasn't already in the process of being destroyed, this explosive power could've wiped out at least 1/6 of the island if controlled enough.

"There's no way...I'm going to let you...destroy this world!" Minato snapped his fingers. "Orpheus!...AGILAO!" He shouted with as much volume as he could, pouring every last drop of power he could into this final magical attack. If he was going to die, he was going to take this person down with him.

Orpheus held one of his hands up high, magic beginning to pour into it, giving it a slight glow. With a determined swing, he brought his hand down across the strings of his harp, playing a note that shouldn't have been as loud as it was. Flames began to swirl into a ball in front of Orpheus, growing and expanding until it was at least four feet wide any way. Minato began to feel his life slowly draining out of him the larger it grew.

The cloaked figure only had five seconds to say, "Oh...shit," before the large sphere was launched forward in his direction. When it made contact, it was like a powerful landmine had exploded, destroying a large portion of the land around where the cloaked figure had been standing. The resounding boom could've been heard all the way from the mainland if one were to keep their ears open.

The light was enough to cause Minato to shield his eyes to keep from going blind.

After several seconds, it was over, leaving a smoky crater. Minato released a sigh of relief. "It's over...I did it..." He tensed when he felt a hand on his shoulder and then an impressed whistling.

"Whoa, Mina-chan~! I have to say, that was much more than I was expecting from you at your current level~!" Minato turned his head ever so slightly with a shocked expression on his face. He looked into the impossibly yellow eyes of the man who was his opponent. "But you're still no match for me~!"

Minato instinctively brought his fist around...but it was a clumsy effort. It was like he was swinging around a heavy, wet noodle with roughly the same results.

The cloaked figure easily sidestepped Minato's attempted attack and lashed out with his own arm. Minato had no time to react as he felt something with a strong grip wrap around his throat and lift him into the air. Then there was that same, mocking laughter as before. Minato wanted to tell that voice to shut up. To go away...but found himself to barely even be able to breathe as the grip around his neck began to tighten to the point of almost crushing his throat. Orpheus had long since disappeared due to the increasing drain Minato was experiencing. At any rate, Minato was probably going to die.

"You should count yourself lucky that you entertain me, Fool! Because of that, I will grant you mercy this one time." The figure mocked. "Try to get stronger! While this has been admittedly interesting, I want to see how much entertainment your 'journey' give me! I want to see how far into the stars you can reach before I smack you right back into the dirty! Ta-ta for now~!" With that, the cloaked figure dropped Minato to the ground with the bluenette landing on his back like a pathetic rag doll.

But rather than hit the sand like he had expected, Minato felt himself land in something cold and shapeless. He felt his eyelids growing heavier, granting him only a tiny bit of energy to turn his eyes toward the ground beneath him. He was granted a good view of the darkness that began to wrap around his body. It was cold and spine chilling. Minato wanted to fight back...to do SOMETHING, but he couldn't. He had used up everything he had in his fight. Hell, he had pretty much gone MILES past his limit. If what laid beyond the darkness didn't kill him, the drain would.

Yet another hopeless situation...

_"Do not give up..."_ ordered a voice. It sounded familiar and slightly cheerful... _"...your story does not end here, Minato. You still have a role to play, but for now, you must rest because..."_

Minato's eyes began to slide shut as the darkness completely wrapped around his body. "...Sora...Riku...Kairi..."

And then darkness (both physically and mentally) took him.

_"...you will be the one who will shatter fate and open the door..."_

* * *

? POV

Back on the island, a familiar cloaked figure watched as his blue-haired foe sank into the darkness before the small puddle vanished.

Once he was gone, he began to clap his hands cheerfully. "Oh good show~! That was so much fun fun FUN~! Things have just gotten started and already I cannot wait~! This is going to be SO MUCH FUN~!" He then smirked as he looked down at his sleeve. His slightly charred sleeve. "Heh. If I had been a second slower, that kid might've actually injured me." The cloaked figure shrugged. "Oh well. Even if he does get stronger, so will I because we're..."

* * *

? POV

It had been subtle, but she was certain she knew what she felt.

Another world had been swallowed.

She frowned as she brushed her dark-blue bangs out of her eyes. The presence she had been following before...that strange presence that she'd felt ever since awakening...

It had moved.

She mentally swore under her breath. "Just what is this...I'm feeling..." Then her eyes widened. "Could it be...could it have a connection with Mother?" She looked around furiously before shaking her head. Rushing would not solve anything. She would find this presence regardless of where it moved to...

And then she would find her Mother.

**Done! I hope you all enjoyed this new installment in Shattered Persona! And if you're thinking "Geez, for someone lacking emotions, Minato displayed quite a few in that battle", then my explanation is that during battle, his soul allows him to feel fragments of his former self and since regaining the Fool Arcana, he has regained a few of his more base emotions...**

**As for that last mystery POV...I'll let you try to figure out who that was...and I'll laugh when you all get it wrong BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye~!**


	5. Chapter 4: We Will Smile Together

**Shalt we continue with this story? Onward and outward then! Tally-ho~!**

**Disclaimer: I. Own. NOOOOOOTHING!**

**Chapter 4:**

**We Will Smile Together Someday  
**

He saw images through the darkness...

...people he used to know...

For a few years now, these images had appeared in his head, but they had been to blurry to make out. He also couldn't quite figure out what the people in these 'visions' were talking about as the sound too was screwed up.

But this time the images came in loud and clear.

It was a bunch of teens around his age...they were...his friends, weren't they?

Mitsuru, Akihiko, and...Shinjiro...they were the oldest...

Then there was the joker yet reliable Junpei...

Shy Fuuka and popular Yukari...

Young Ken-kun and good ol' Koro-chan...

One by one, each of these faces and names came to him...his friends...he could not remember anything else other than that.

The one that stuck out more than any of them was a certain, blonde-haired girl. Minato couldn't quite make out her full appearance, but he was certain she was not human...that thought didn't do anything to stop the even warmer feeling in his chest at the very thought of her.

Just that these people whose names he remembered were once his friends. It would be much more heartening to remember if he was trapped in this endless abyss.

"This sucks." Minato uttered out after what could've been either a second or an eternity. He was constantly going in and out of consciousness, unaware if he had moved at all or if 'something' got near him. The drain from using his Personae was much more powerful than he had thought it was. By that point, he was absolutely paralyzed from the lack of energy.

On the few occasions Minato maintained consciousness long enough to make an attempt at moving, he was greeted by an unbearable pain. Like a thousand needles being stabbed into his flesh all over his body. His nerves and muscles screamed at him to stop it until he passed out again.

So he simply chose to let himself float through the darkness, waiting for the endless headaches to stop or waiting to somehow actually recover some of his energy.

Darkness and more darkness...by that point, Minato began to wonder how he still existed. The darkness was so overwhelming, it should've crushed him. His heart was empty...there was nothing in it to protect him...then again, maybe it was BECAUSE his heart was empty that the darkness ignored him...

An empty shell.

_"That's not true!"_

Minato's eyes opened slightly at the familiar voice. He opened his mouth and tried to shout something, but it was lost to the endless abyss.

_"Don't forget, Minato. You're special. That's one of the many reasons people found themselves drawn to you. It was because of that specialness that we were able to meet in that special place long ago. The reason I was allowed to meet you in that 'elevator'."_

Something about what she said sparked a sense of familiarity in the bluenette's mind, but that spark was soon extinguished.

_"Even though your soul is fragmented and scattered, your heart is still one of your most powerful weapons. Even when you cannot feel or choose for yourself, your heart will show you the way."_

As if by some unknown signal, a single beam of light shined right into Minato's eyes. He turned his head upward (downward?) and saw the source of the light in the distance. It was small, but it refused to fade in the face of the abyss. It was actually rather warm.

It filled Minato with a familiar feeling of nostalgia. A wish to see those better days he once knew.

It was like the light was trying to draw him in. It was asking him for permission to save him from that darkness. Minato's arm seemed to move on its own accord, reaching out towards the light. He refused to just stay there. His body began to scream in pain yet again as every last movement cost him energy he still did not have.

But he would not let go of the light. That light would show him the way.

He still had to go back the island. He had to save Sora, Riku, and Kairi. He had to figure out his feelings of whether or not he LIKE liked Selphie. He had to...

_I have to remember who I truly am!_

With a final lunge, Minato launched himself forward through the dark space and towards the light. He refused to be swallowed by the abyss, even when the darkness began to wrap around him, attempting to drag him away from the light. He would not fall.

The light seemed to grow. It expanded and Minato felt himself become weightless. The light blinded Minato's eyes with the searing brightness, but it still felt warm to Minato. Then he remembered the immense amount of pain he was in and immediately knew he could not hang on for much longer.

Everything began to go dark. He was barely able to register hitting a hard, metallic ground with a painful thud. He managed to catch sight of two tiny, furry creatures before his own darkness consumed him.

He blacked out again.

* * *

_Later..._

Minato felt his whole body aching when he woke up. It still hurt, but not as much as it did before.

That was a good sign.

He had also regained enough energy to at least move a little. Maybe sit up. Maybe even wiggle his fingers.

A much better sign.

The small chipmunk dressed in an engineer's outfit sitting on his chest?

DEFINITELY not a good sign.

When Minato's eyes first opened, he was certain he was still half-asleep when he saw the small critter. So he rubbed his eyes to wake himself up only to see the chipmunk still there.

"Hey there!"

What's worse is that it was TALKING.

"Huh?" seemed like the most practical response.

"You were asleep for quite a while, friend!" His voice was high-pitched and squeaky, even coming off as humorous. Minato blinked.

"Oh right!" The chipmunk exclaimed. "You probably don't know where you are, do you? Sorry!"

Minato blinked. He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to figure out what to say in this situation.

"Who are you?" He finally decided to ask.

The small chipmunk saluted. "The name's Chip!"

"And I'm Dale!" Minato looked behind Chip to see a similar-looking chipmunk who seemed to speak with a slightly different accent. The chipmunks themselves were enough to make the situation strange enough to cause Minato difficulty in the task of speaking.

"I'm Minato." Minato turned his head and scanned the room he was in. It appeared to be some sort of infirmary or something. "...where am I? How did I get here?"

Chip jumped up and down excitedly. "You're in Disney Castle's infirmary! You were in pretty bad shape when you got here!"

Minato rubbed his forehead as he slowly sat up as to not strain himself. Chip jumped off of him as to avoid tripping and falling onto the ground.

"As to the how...I don't know."

Dale nodded. "Yeah! You just up and appeared in the hangar out of nowhere! We think that on your way to wherever you were going, something went screwy and you crashed here."

"I see." Minato began to rub his chin with a pensive look on his face. Back in that darkness...that voice had sounded so familiar... "Do you know how I can get back to my island then? I really gotta get back there and find my friends. Things were going really downhill last time I checked."

There was a long silence. The kind that always occurred when you knew there was going to be extremely bad news coming along.

The two chipmunks looked at one another nervously, shuffling their feet.

"Um..." Chip trailed off.

"...er...maybe we should go tell Queen Minnie that your finally awake!" Dale clearly didn't feel comfortable talking about whatever it was they were so anxious about telling him. "Come on!" The two chipmunks jumped over the side of the bed and ran over to the open door where they waited for Minato to get up.

Realizing he wasn't going to get any real answers in that room, gathered his energy in order to swing his legs over the side of his bed, his sheet slipping off him. Minato had to admit that he was relieved to see that his clothes didn't appear to have been touched since the last time he checked them. Minato released a sigh from the slight exertion it took to get to his feet.

He was pleased that he didn't fall over or feel the urge to throw up. Whatever they had done to treat him had apparently worked.

There was still a mild exhaustion, but he didn't feel like he would die any second anymore. "How long was I out?"

The chipmunks looked at one another. The terrible silence wasn't as long as the previous one so there was no surprise that this bad news wasn't as bad as it could've been.

"Somewhere around three days."

Minato's eyes widened slightly. "Three days?" He shook his head. "God knows how much destruction that jacket guy has caused by now."

Chip and Dale said nothing. Minato had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

"Come on!"

"Follow us!"

Minato nodded. The chipmunks scampered away, Minato following at a jogging pace. Their trip passed in complete silence. Minato honestly wasn't paying attention to where he was going. His thoughts just kept on returning to that time he spent in the darkness and his mild surprise that he wasn't crushed entirely. The one person in those visions that truly stuck out...

_...that blonde girl...Who is she?_

More and more questions began to pop into Minato's minds. Only one answer and so many more questions. It was rather frustrating.

"We're here!" Dale's voice cut into Minato's thoughts like they were made of butter. Minato looked up and found himself looking up...and up and up until he finally saw the top of the gigantic door in front of him. It was at least the size of two buildings.

_I wonder what kind of beast they need to open-_

One of the chipmunks ran up to the right side of the door and knocked twice. A small rectangle opened inward.

_-of course._

Minato hadn't been aware he was staring until there was a slight cough from one of the small creatures on the ground.

"Do you want to see the Queen or not?!"

Minato nodded. "Let's go." He then followed the chipmunks all the way to the end of the large room which could be called a throne room.

Sitting in a large throne at the end of the room was a young lady-er-mouse with black fur and large, black, circular ears...she wore an elegant, pink gown as well as a golden tiara on her head.

The chipmunks bowed in her presence and, sensing that she was clearly someone with the authority to cut off his head, Minato knelt on one knee with his own head bowed.

""We've brought him, your majesty!"" The chipmunks said in unison.

The Queen nodded to the chipmunks before standing from her throne, turning her gaze towards Minato.

"Rise." Minato stared at her uncertainly, debating whether or not this was meant to be some sort of test. After deciding to risk it, Minato stood, clearly taller than the female mouse. The Queen appeared to be smiling. "It is good to see that you have recovered. We were awfully worried about you."

Minato scratched his head awkwardly. He wasn't quite sure how to reply to a complete stranger who said such a thing. "T-Thank you..." And then his previous questions came to his mind. "Um, your majesty...I was wondering if you could tell me how to get back to my island? Things were not in very good shape last time and I gotta beat up this guy." Minato then went on to explain everything that had happened prior to his arrival at her castle. The darkness, those creatures called 'Heartless', as well as that cloaked man. It wasn't a good explanation, but it was all that Minato himself understood.

The Queen's expression saddened considerably. "I'm sorry, but I don't think that will be possible..."

Minato blinked, wondering if he heard her correctly. "If it's because I don't have munny to pay for transportation, I could just walk there or swim. Whichever. If you could just point me in the right direction-"

"What I mean to say is that it is impossible because your world no longer exists." There was a long silence.

"What?"

The Queen shook her head. "I'm afraid that what you've described...from what you've told me, your world has been swallowed by the darkness as well. I'm sorry to tell you it is no longer possible to return to your island because it has been destroyed."

Minato wasn't sure quite how to react. His responses were limited by his lacking heart. The only things he thought to feel were either irritation, frustration, or a simple emptiness. He wanted to say that she was lying, that she was crazy, but one look into her eyes and Minato knew for a fact that it was true.

His island...his friends...the last two years of his life had vanished in that destructive darkness like smoke.

His legs felt weak and eventually gave way...Minato fell to his knees.

"I'm sorry." was all the Queen could say. Chip and Dale didn't even bother. There was no consoling Minato.

Minato felt it was slightly irritating how it was at that moment that he felt a new and not-so alien feeling: Loss.

His already empty heart became even emptier. Now he truly WAS alone. Everyone...everything was gone.

He didn't cry. He couldn't. The ability to cry that he had achieved back on the island had suddenly vanished...

...but he couldn't leave it like that...

"I have to know why...why did this happen?" Minato choked out.

The Queen returned to her throne and sat, staring at Minato with pity. "It is a long story...are you sure you would like to know?"

Minato's mind was so messed up that he couldn't remember how to speak, so he instead decided to give the Queen a nod. She accepted his answer and then began a long explanation.

She spoke of numerous worlds, how each was disconnected from one another until recently. She spoke of how creatures of darkness, Heartless, were born from the darkness in people's hearts. How they were going around, destroying worlds which to others appeared as stars. One by one, these stars were beginning to be extinguished. She even went as far as explaining how she sent two members of her royal court to find their king as well as something called 'the key'.

At the end, Minato found himself almost more exhausted than when he woke up. "So...everyone's really gone..."

"That might not be necessarily true."

Minato tensed slightly. He stared confusedly at the Queen. "What? But you just said that the Heartless destroyed my world. They're all gone, maybe turned into Heartless themselves."

"There are a few exceptions." It was clear the Queen was just trying to give Minato hope, but she continued speaking anyway. "There are some examples where a world is lost but many of the inhabitants survive the darkness, rather, being scattered across the many worlds rather than being swallowed by it. Some with strong hearts could even manage to journey on their own to wherever their heart guided them."

Minato thought about it and he immediately felt his spirits rise.

_People with strong hearts..._

"So my friends, Sora, Riku, and Kairi may have gotten off our island, but be lost among other worlds?" He felt...excited. Excitement was a nice feeling.

The Queen nodded. "If they're hearts are truly strong enough to weather the darkness."

Minato clenched his right hand in front of him. It was faint, but he could feel the hope emanating from his very soul. His friends were still alive.

Then came the sound of shattering glass.

Minato looked around. Time appeared to have frozen entirely. Minato's eyes widened as a familiar-seeming card slowly floated down into his hand. Another tarot card, this time depicting a symbol in the shape of star.

_The Star Arcana. Your shining star. The part of your soul that holds hope, faith, and self-confidence._

Suddenly, Minato felt more put-together than he did before. He also remembered yet another face...a former rival. Someone with whom he had once competed with yet at the same time befriended. Whom he had supported even when he had to put off his dreams to take care of those he loved.

Mamoru Hayase.

Time seemed to speed up again and nobody seemed to have noticed it had even stopped.

"What will you do now..." The Queen trailed off, having realized she had yet to learn Minato's name.

"Minato. Minato Arisato." Minato bowed again. "...I have no choice. If I want to find my friends, I have to start my new journey to find them..." He then rubbed his chin pensively. "...but the real question is how...?"

The Queen seemed pleased that Minato had regained the spirit that he had regained. "I would suggest meeting up with two of our royal court, Donald and Goofy. If you found them as well as the person who had this 'key', they may be able to help you find your friends as well."

Minato scratched his head, thinking. "But how would I find them?...from what you've said, they're on another world by this point so..."

"We could allowed you to use one of our vessels."

"Yeah. You could let me use-" Minato blinked, having processed what the Queen just said. "Come again?"

The Queen turned to Chip and Dale who saluted again upon being noticed. "Could you two please go outfit a vessel that Minato could pilot? He has a long journey ahead of him." The two chipmunks nodded before scampering off to the hangar.

Shock only BEGAN to describe how Minato. "So you're willing to allow a complete stranger to use one of your royal ships to go on a journey that has nothing to do with you?"

The Queen nodded. "From the way you spoke, you truly seem to care for your friends and if I can give you any help in finding them, I'd be glad to."

Minato thought what he did next was a bit much, but didn't care. He fell forward onto the ground before the Queen, prostrating himself with his forehead touching the floor. "You are possibly the kindest soul in the entire universe. Thank you so much."

"It is no bother really. It is exactly what my Mickey would do..." The Queen trailed off, as if remembering something sad. Minato rose from his position, staring at the saddened expression on the Queen's face. She then looked up at Minato and looked as if she had thought of something. "Minato, while on your journey, could you do something for me?"

Minato nodded. "Of course. It would be the least I could do to repay your kindness, your majesty."

"While on your journey, could you keep your eye out for a mouse named Mickey. He was the one who originally went to investigate the disappearances of the other worlds. He was also the one who sent Goofy and Donald on their journey to find the 'key'. I'm very worried about him."

Minato stood, nodding slightly. He quickly saluted. "As you wish, your majesty!" The Queen's smile returned yet again.

"Thank you."

Minato felt a strange movement on his face. His mouth seemed to curve slightly in an expression he was only able to mimic before: A smile.

His expression quickly changed to surprise and disbelief.

_...I...smiled..._

The thought was almost more exciting than the fact his friends were still alive. It also returned the smile to his face again. Happiness. The warm feeling that had eluded him for over two years had spread throughout his entire body.

"Now you'd better hurry along now, Minato. Chip and Dale should have your vessel prepped and ready to go by now."

The Queen's voice snapped Minato out of his thoughts. He quickly bowed gratefully. "Thank you so much, your majesty!" He then turned around and ran towards the door, turning right...he then immediately stuck his head back into the room. "Uhhh..."

"The other way," The Queen provided. Minato nodded sheepishly before turning around and heading in the opposite direction he had been headed before.

* * *

Minato was surprised how much the hangar reminded him of the inside of a clock. It was actually a little fun.

He met the two chipmunks at the platform.

"We figured you'd be needing something sturdy and large enough to carry you across the many worlds out there-!" started Chip.

"-so this vessel ought to do you some good!" Dale finished. Minato looked at the ship behind them. It looked like the pieces that were used to put it together were building blocks, but it seemed rather powerful as a whole. Minato smiled he bowed to the two chipmunks.

"Thank you. Both of you."

""Don't mention it!""

Minato then entered the ship and got in the big chair behind the control panel. Dale's face appeared on the screen next to the steering mechanism.

"Now don't worry! We input the coordinates that Donald and Goofy were at last time we checked in on them!"

"You should be able to find them if you let the ship's autopilot take over!"

""HAPPY TRAILS!""

Minato waited for the big arrow in front of his ship to move away...and then the floor below the ship opened, allowing the gummi ship to drop through.

Gravity was suspended for a moment and Minato could not see. He was falling through a long tunnel and he was only aware he had reached the end when he slammed painfully against the unforgiving ground. He didn't wait. He immediately leaped into the driver's seat and buckled himself in before the ship took off full-speed ahead.

Minato practiced the expression he had successfully worn only moments ago.

"Sora...Riku...Kairi..." He held his hand to his heart. "Someday, we will meet again and when we do, we'll all smile together."

* * *

_Back at Disney Castle...? POV..._

The information this queen had given her was no surprise. She had sensed that the source of that presence had moved the moment she arrived.

"I'm sorry," the Queen apologize. "I'm afraid you just missed him."

She shook her head. "Do not worry about it, your majesty."

"I could tell you where he's headed though. You should be able to catch him there."

This mouse queen was quite the kind individual, she thought to herself. "You have my gratitude your highness." She bowed.

"It's no trouble. It's nice to see that one of Minato's friends were as worried about him as he was about them. I wish you good luck and safety in your travels."

She nodded to the Queen.

Minato.

So that was the name of her target.

The name of the one who could lead her to her Mother.

**FINISHED! So yeah, the mysterious girl is catching up to Minato! Who is she? Is she a friend or foe? I'm not telling so you're all gonna have to keep guessing until the next chapter! Bet y'all still can't guess who she is~!**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	6. Chapter 5: Trip to Traverse Town

**HERE WE GO! LET US CONTINUE DIVING INTO THIS STORY!...That's about all I got for an introduction. ON WITH THE STORY~!**

**Disclaimer: I. Own. Nothing (except OC's).**

**Chapter 5:**

**Trip to Traverse Town**

It wasn't that long before the world came within sight. Minato could see it from behind the windshield of his gummi ship. From what his ship's technological mumbo jumbo (stuff so complicated he had to repeatedly read through manuals each time to use) told him, this world was known as Traverse Town.

"Here it is." Minato said to himself. The town was incredibly close. "Now all I gotta do is la-" Minato blinked. He looked around the room curiously and then back to the control panel. "Hm. Looks like they neglected to mention how to land the ship."

There was a long silence for several minutes.

Minato shrugged. "Oh well. How hard could it be to land a spaceship?" With that, Minato took his seat in front of the control panel and placed his hands on the steering wheel-like mechanism. "Just ease forward a little-"

* * *

? POV

She watched as the ship she had been tailing began slowing to a stop upon reaching that world.

A smirk couldn't be helped. Her target was literally right in front of her. Whether it be here or on the surface of that world made no difference.

She would capture him and once she did, she would question him. He would help her find Mother no matter what.

That blue-haired boy would- Huh?

She turned her attention to the ship holding the boy as it began to tilt and shudder uncertainly. Her eyes widened as the ship began to spiral as that world's gravity began to draw the ship in. It flew forward and gradually disappeared.

"That was...unexpected." Was all she could say.

* * *

Back to Minato...

The bluenette rubbed his aching head as he tried to get a fix on his position. His good mood thus far had been completely ruined.

Other than the many bruises he had sustained in the impact, he had been thrown straight through the windshield of the gummi ship which had firmly launched itself halfway through one of the roofs of a nearby building. The tenants were not going to be happy to see that.

Minato sighed. "Five seconds on my own and already crashed a spaceship. It's a little funny, right-" Minato blinked, looking at his outstretched hand. He blinked, slightly alarmed. "I...I was about to say someone's name...what was it?" Minato frowned, once again reminded of his lack of memories and the loss of most of his emotions. He had regained his ability to genuinely smile and feel hope...he had regained his curiosity. For now, those would have to do until he found the others.

He looked at his surroundings. He was certain he was somewhere in Traverse Town, but he had no idea where. He shrugged, shaking his head. "I guess anywhere would be a good place to start looking for those two guys the Queen mentioned...Goofy and Donald, was it? That comes first and THEN I worry how I'm gonna get off this rock."

He then began to search around the district he had landed in. It contained quite a few shops and several houses but nothing he was looking for. Minato considered knocking on doors, but then people might stick their heads out and notice the giant spaceship crashed into the nearby rooftop. And that would only mean more trouble for Minato.

"God this is such a drag." Minato stated plainly after a good hour of searching. He felt annoyed, but actual whining was out of his reach, not that he minded. "I really should've asked what these guys looked like anyway...but I guess if they were from that world, they would-" It was at that moment that Minato noticed several of his shadows around him beginning to stir. And then he remembered that he should only have one. "-stand out." Minato took a step back.

Before Minato could react, several ant-like figures both with and without armor rose from the ground, dancing around madly as they began to set their glowing yellow eyes on the almost defenseless bluenette. Minato's frown changed into a scowl.

_Heartless...the things that attacked me before...the things that destroyed my island...  
_

"You know," A blue energy began to radiate from his body as he held out his hand in front of him. ,"you guys are starting to become a nuisance." He was about to let loose on the poor creatures of darkness when a shiny object past by him, cutting through all of the Heartless and moving in a perfect circle around him. After making sure to decapitate every Heartless present, the object lost its momentum and spiraled downwards, digging into the ground.

Minato stared, confused. "Huh?" Sunken into the ground in front of Minato was a weapon that seemed oddly out of place in the present era: a shuriken. A BIG shuriken.

"Another one bites the dust!" shouted an unnaturally cheerful voice. Minato turned toward the source to see on a nearby rooftop to see a girl perhaps a year older than him. She was a girl with short, black hair and who wore a metal headband with two green tassels. She wore a yellow scarf, a green tube top with two blue belts holding it up, tan short-shorts with another loose, blue belt around her waist, white socks that reach about mid-thigh, orange shoes, and mesh sleeves on her arms that disappeared into orange, fingerless gloves with black bands constricting the ends. She then struck what she must've thought was a heroic pose by pointing into the air with her other hand on her hip. "Have no fear! I, the Great Ninja Yuffie, have come to rescue you! So do not wo-"

But Minato had stopped paying attention almost immediately after she started talking. "Now where did those Donald and Goofy guys go? Maybe I should check another area..."

"-and I am the epitome of stealth and power and-"

Minato looked around him. "Well I suppose if they were here, I would've seen them by now..."

"Not to mention my beauty is almost-"

Minato shook his head, sighing slightly. "Nothing else to do I suppose. Just gotta keep looking."

"HEY!" The 'Great Ninja Yuffie' had by that point realized Minato wasn't listening and jumped from her perch to land next to him, glaring. Rather than acknowledge her, Minato instead stood on his tiptoes to look over her.

"Now where to look next..."

He didn't notice the vein that popped out on her forehead until she pulled her leg back. "I'M TALKING TO YOU, JERK!" Then Yuffie proceeded to kick Minato in a place that no man should be kicked.

Minato let out a squeak of pain before his legs buckled and he fell face-forward to the ground. "...I can't feel my anything..."

A vein popped out on Yuffie's head. "You're supposed to listen to people when they're talking to you ESPECIALLY when that person saved your life."

Once Minato's pain had faded after a few minutes, he stood up carefully and narrowed his eyes. "I don't recall asking for your help." He felt irritated. Yuffie barged right in even though Minato didn't need her help and then she kicked him in the goolies...but he couldn't bring himself to hate her. "...but thanks."

Yuffie's angry expression lessened somewhat as she took her hands off her hips. A small smile replaced the expression on her face. "Don't mention it..."

Minato sighed. It was only fair that he said SOMETHING to return the 'favor' for her introduction. "Minato. Minato Arisato."

Yuffie waved. "Nice to meetcha, Minato!" Minato shook his head.

"Yeah. Whatever." Now that that was out of the way, he didn't have any time to spare. There was no telling where those two people were now that this girl had wasted his time. Yuffie pouted adorably.

"Geez. I figured that you would at least be somewhat social like Sora was, but apparently I was wrong."

Minato rubbed his temples, turning to leave. "You know, I really-" And then he realized what Yuffie had just said. He quickly spun around on his heels and gripped Yuffie's shoulders. A light blush colored her cheeks at the close proximity the two were in. "Wait! Did you just say 'Sora'?! Is he here?! Where can I find him?!"

Yuffie blinked as if realizing something. "Wait...You said your name is Minato, right?...You're THAT Minato!?"

"Answer the questions!" Yuffie was taken back by the expression on Minato's face. It was a mix of determination and something that said 'if you screw with me, I will kill you'.

"Well, yeah! Sora was-" She then noticed a strange light that seemed to be getting closer. "LOOK OUT!" She tackled Minato backwards just in time as a shining bolt of light smashed a crater into the spot the two had just been standing on a moment prior. The explosion that resulted from the impact could've been heard by over half the town.

Yuffie coughed from the smoke inhalation as she tried to find the source of the attack. "That power...it's no joke."

"That's nice and all and not that I mind this position," came a muffled voice below her, "but could you please get off of me?"

Yuffie looked down to see that she had indeed saved Minato, but her face turned a deep shade of scarlet when she noticed one part of her had shielded his head. Well the blow to the head she inflicted would've been soft at least.

Yuffie instinctively jumped off of Minato, her hands over her chest in embarrassment. "Y-You-You PERVERT!"

Minato adopted an annoyed expression, but there was a light blush on his face. "Hey. You're the one trying to smother me with that chest of yours. However, you probably would've had an easier time killing me with a pillow than those small things you call breasts." Yuffie's expression changed from embarrassment to outrage.

"H-HOW DARE YOU!?" She then looked down at her 'budding' breasts. "T-They're just still developing! Someday, you're going to eat those words!"

"I would wait, but I don't think I could hold my breath that long."

"Why you-!"

"Impressive." boomed a loud and powerful voice. "I had meant to impale you both with that, but you have much faster reflexes than your foolish looks let on." The two teens looked up to another nearby rooftop to see a lone figure with her arms crossed.

She was a young lady (somewhere between Minato and Yuffie's age) with dark blue hair and purple eyes. She wore a black, latex suit with a large white stripe down the center of her torso (which Minato offhandedly noticed had a much larger bust than Yuffie). She also wore several pieces of blue plated armor on her arms, shins and waist. Her hair was tied into a high ponytail using a hair accessory resembling a shuriken and wore over her ears another accessory that appeared to be headphones. She had a rather calm expression on her face considering she just tried to kill two people.

When she laid her eyes on Minato, her eyebrows rose slightly. "On second thought, it would've been bad if my target had been killed without providing me answers."

Minato blinked. "Target? If you want answers to some big question, you might wanna get in line, sister." The girl's eye twitched.

"Are you mocking me?" she asked seriously. "Do not play dumb, worm. I want what you know about her!"

_Her?_ Minato thought. _Just who is this weirdo talking about?_

But there was something else bugging him. "Worm? Really? What century or social class are you from? Cos I'm pretty sure they are pretty out of date."

This time Minato could see the vein pop out on her forehead.

_"Young master,"_ came Orpheus's voice in his head. _"I know as your servant it may not be my place to say so...but you are REALLY bad with women._"

_Hey, I'm just being truthful._

The girl opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short by Yuffie's slightly louder voice. "YOU NEED TO WORK ON YOUR MANNERS! I MEAN WHAT KIND OF BITCH JUST TRIES TO KILL PEOPLE WITHOUT A PROPER REASON LIKE THAT!" Now the girl's anger was directed towards Yuffie. "I MEAN-" Yuffie's sentence was cut short as she dodged to the right as the girl's flying kick came crashing towards her. Yuffie managed to dodge the strange girl's foot, but the power of the shockwave made her lose her balance and sent her skidding backwards several feet.

Now the strange girl was standing in the middle of her own crater. She had her hand held out towards the other crater she had created. When Minato looked back, he noticed the slender, black spear digging deep into the ground. The spear's tip was long with two other blades branching out on either side.

"Return to me...GUNGNIR!" Minato's eyes widened as the spear seemed to obey the girl's command as it slowly rose from the ground, its tip scraping as it was removed from its earthen sheathe. The spear then began to slowly spin and rotate. Minato had to duck as it threw itself over his head.

The girl caught the spear easily, completing two more rotations before stopping and then assuming a battle stance that placed both of her hands on it. She glared at Minato. "If you won't give me the answers I seek, then I shall take them by force or claim your life. Whichever comes first."

Minato smirked. Now she was speaking his language. "As they say: Bring it on."

"Hold it!" Yuffie interrupted, running to Minato's side. "You don't even have a weapon. Leave this to me."

Minato glared. "No way. This fight's mine."

"How about a compromise?" The strange girl offered. "I kill you both now and save time." She lowered her spear's tip towards them.

At that moment, the same exact thought passed through both Minato and Yuffie's heads:

_Bitch is going down._

Minato glared. "You make a grave mistake underestimating me."

The girl sneered. "Not likely. It seems like a small price: Beating you in order to find her."

_There she goes again with that 'finding her' thing..._ Minato noticed. _Who is she talking_ about?

"Well sometimes the price surprises you." Minato replied. He held out his hand in front of him as a familiar, blue power began to radiate from his body. "Per-"

"LOOK OUT!" He felt a sharp kick to his side as he was thrown to his right, narrowly avoiding the spear that had almost run him through being held by the girl following its path. Yuffie glared at him. "What's the matter with you?! Just standing there waiting to get killed!"

"YOU can leave, ninja." The strange girl stated, having stopped moving except for turning her head slightly to look at the two teens from the corner of her eye. "My business is with the boy with the strange hair color."

Minato's sweat dropped. _You have the same hair color, idiot._

Yuffie glared. She turned to Minato with a look of worry in her eye. She genuinely seemed to care what happened to him. "Forget it! I'm not gonna lay a hand on him! He's Sora's friend and so that makes him my friend too...Even if he does seem like a gigantic ass!"

Minato wasn't sure whether to feel touched or insulted. He sighed, taking a step forward. "There's no reason for you to stay, Yuffie. There's no reason for you get hurt."

Yuffie's eyes widened, perhaps unsure if she heard right. "What? But you-"

"-can handle a psycho like this," Minato interrupted, he grinned as he stuck out his hand again. Yuffie took an uncertain step back, not quite sure what to do. "Let's try this again..."

The girl lowered her spear again, ready to charge. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but it's useless. YOUR HEAD IS MINE!" The girl charged again, her spear determined to strike Minato down. Minato swore under his breath, reorganizing his priorities for the moment. Minato retracted his arm, jumping to the left to avoid the spears point. He felt a familiar shockwave that sent flying further back than he had planned. Minato skidded backwards, managing to almost regain his balance before something slammed into his side, knocking the air out of him. Minato was once again sent tumbling, hitting his head, his legs, and his arms trying to soften the blow to his body before he eventually started rolling to a stop.

Minato began to cough up the saliva that had started to choke him when his lungs tried to forcibly refill themselves. It didn't take a genius to figure out the girl had spun around at the last minute, slamming the shaft of her spear into Minato's side. Not wanting to seem weak, Minato got back to his feet albeit stumbling a little.

"One blow and already out of energy? I'm not impressed." The girl said, mocking Minato. Minato wiped a bit of dirty of his cheek on his sleeve.

"Who said I was done. That was a lovetap to me." Minato retorted. "Perhaps it's I who should be unimpressed."

The girl growled. "Quiet, you filthy worm! If you did not have the answers I sought, I would've killed you the moment I laid my eyes on you!" But Minato saw a strange look in her eyes despite her angry expression. Hesitation? Fear? Perhaps. Before Minato could figure it out, the girl rotated her spear again, determined to strike Minato down. She charged, this time not in a single piercing attack. She swung the sharp end at Minato who leaned left and right as the girl began to swing the blade in an attempt to cut him. Minato shuffled his feet as his body moved to its own rhythm as he ducked and dodged each spin and strike. The girl likewise continued to spin and swing her spear around at the bluenette, causing their little confrontation to look like a strange dance of sorts.

It could've gone like that for much long if Minato hadn't stumbled on a bit of crumbling earth. He stumbled and took a few seconds to regain his footing. Those few seconds were all the girl needed to swing the tip of her spear around yet again, managing to cut a long, thin line across Minato, having barely been able to graze him. Minato winced slightly, losing focus for just a moment, allowing the girl to spin around and jab him in the stomach with the blunt end of her spear. Minato was yet again winded, but he managed to retain his position. The girl was taken aback as she noticed the smirk growing on Minato's face.

"Perfect." Before she could react, Minato grabbed onto the shaft of the spear that struck him. The girl's eyes widened in shock. Minato pulled his free hand into a fist and pulled it back. "Now let me pay you back!" The girl didn't react as Minato's fist slammed into the side of her face HARD and knocked her off balance from shock.

Her eyes were still wide, disbelieving that Minato had gotten a good, clean hit on her. Minato followed by yanking her forward by the shaft of her spear and bringing his foot up and delivering a second blow to her stomach, releasing his grip on the spear so she could be knocked back.

Minato decided that now was the best moment. "Now let me show you my TRUMP CARD!" As fast as he could, Minato once again released the powerful energy as before as a tarot card floated down into his hand. "Izanagi!" He crushed the card in his hand as the outward burst of power allowed the appearance of a familiar samurai-style fighter.

The girl just stared in shock. "That power...Why do you have that power!?" Minato didn't answer as he focused all of his power into keeping Izanagi materialized. He winced from a slight pang of pain he felt in his side.

_I guess I'm still not fully recovered. But I have no choice._...

"Tarukaja!" Minato felt a bit of his magical power vanish only to be replaced by the feeling of enhanced physical strength through the bond he had with Izanagi. "Go get her!" Izanagi obeyed, charging and swinging down his sword-like naginata on the girl. She seemed to suddenly remember that she was in the middle of a fight and leaped with the agility of a cat just as the naginata cleaved a great fissure where she had just been standing. She somehow managed to land and keep her spot on the side of a nearby building. Izanagi followed Minato's mental commands as he swung his blade sideways into the building, cutting off a large chunk of it.

The girl had once again managed to dodge the strike, leaping onto a nearby rooftop. Despite the fact she had almost been killed twice, she couldn't help but smile out of amusement.

"Perhaps I was mistaken about you, boy!" The girl mused.

Minato raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

The girl laughed a little. "You are quite a bit more of a challenge than I thought you'd be! Perhaps you truly DO hold the answers I seek!" Then a new power exploded out of her. Minato felt that the best thing to compare it to would be lightning. If he got near her, he might actually get shocked. "But I'm afraid this battled ends now!"

Minato wasn't one to be outdone. He poured even more power into Izanagi as he prepared to unleash a skill. "I couldn't agree more!" The amount of killing intent that radiated off of both fighters was almost suffocating. "Izanagi! Cleave!"

The girl pointed her spear tip downward. "GUNGNIR!" There was a large flash of lightning from the clear sky that struck the spear's tip. Electricity began to crackle as Minato sensed the energy that was beginning to be stored up in the spear. There would've been no telling what that final clash would've done if it hadn't been for the interruption that chose to arrive at that moment.

"See!? I told you, Squall!" came an annoyingly familiar voice. Minato halted Izanagi's charge to turn to see a familiar ninja. The girl also stopped in confusion to see Yuffie return with an unfamiliar man.

He looked about 25. He had neck length brown hair. He had a diagonal scar on his face. He wore a small leather jacket and a white shirt underneath it. He also wore leather pants with several belts around it. He wore leather gloves on both hands and leather straps on only one of them. He also wore black shoes. He had a total "bad-ass" aura surrounding him. Hefted over his shoulder was a large blade with a hilt resembling the handle of a revolver.

He sighed at Yuffie's technical introduction. "I told you. It's Leon." He looked from one fighter to the other. "I'm gonna have to ask you to stop right now."

"Why?" Minato asked. The other man gestured all around the area. It was only at that moment that Minato noticed the destruction that the place had been left in.

"You're creating quite a bit of collateral damage."

Both Minato and the girl stared at the man, Leon, for several seconds before turning to face one another.

"Want to kill this guy first and then each other?" The girl asked.

"Oh most definitely."

Yuffie's jaw dropped. "What's with your crazy killing intent!?" She noticed the gigantic amount that had been pouring off from the two nonstop since she had left. "AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" She gestured towards Izanagi floating uninhibited in the air.

Neither fighter listened as they turned their to blow something else up.

Leon shook his head. "That's E-NOUGH!" He put extra emphasis on both syllables of 'enough' as he pointed the tip of his blade towards the middle space between Minato and the girl. A large sphere of fire formed on the tip shortly before Leon pulled a small trigger inside what qualified as a guard on his sword. The fireball launched itself towards the center of the two before it suddenly split in two, flying in the direction of the two individual fighters.

The girl's eyes widened. "Oh-"

"-shit."

They barely managed to roll just in time as a large explosion rocked the ground they had just been standing on.

"AIIIIIEEE!" Yuffie shrieked. She then began to beat (or attempt to anyway) Leon down with her fists, coming off as soft bumps on Leon's chest. "WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU!? YOU COULD'VE KILLED THEM!"

"No kidding," Minato agreed, rubbing the back of his head as his killing intent gradually faded.

Leon shook his head. "At this rate, the entire district would've been destroyed."

"YEAH BY YOU!" Yuffie then gestured to the spaces where Leon's fire attack had struck. His sweat dropped as he noticed a large chunk of the building the girl had been standing on was missing and that there was a gigantic hole in the ground where Minato had stood, a large pipe underneath it having been melted through.

"Oh." Was all he said. He was then confronted by the very angry girl.

"How dare you interrupt my fight!? This has nothing to do with you! This is between me and the worm!"

Minato frowned as he made his way over to the three of them. "First off, stop calling me a worm." He then sighed. "But this brings me back to my previous question: Why the Hell are you trying to kill me, you psycho bitch?" He re-asked the question in a calm yet obviously annoyed tone. "I mean really. I haven't done a single thing to you."

The girl, too, had calmed down enough that she shook her head. "My apologies."

"Well since we're all not trying to kill each other now," Yuffie cut into the long silence, "Maybe we should get out of here." She once again gestured to the massive destruction they as a whole had caused.

All three of the others sweat dropped. ""Oh yeah...right...""

* * *

After a bit of momentary peacemaking between Minato and the strange girl, they all retreated to a small house in what they called the Third District. Leon had said he would get some guy named Cid to take a look at Minato's crashed gummi ship.

Leon sighed. "And here I was thinking Sora was a troublemaker." Minato frowned.

"OK, now I want answers! From everyone!" He made it quite clear he meant business. "You guys say you've seen Sora? Well where is he? Was there anyone else with him?"

Yuffie seemed a little reluctant to speak for once. "Well...he left...he left a while ago." Minato's shoulders slumped a little. "And I'm afraid he came here alone. He left to go look for his friends including you actually."

Minato seemed to have expected this answer. The girl watched in silence as the exchange.

Then Minato shot up as he remembered something else. "Well what about two guys named Donald and Goofy? Have you seen either of them around?"

"They left with Sora." Leon stated bluntly. Minato really felt that blow as he had to sit down on the bed behind him, his head hung in disappointment.

"So I'm right back at square one. No clues as to where to find the others..."

"Sorry there's nothing else we can do," Yuffie said back, trying to soften the blow for Minato. Minato shook his head.

He had felt so hopeful when the Queen gave him some clues as to where to find the others and now he once again had squat, every last clue gone along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"So that is your reason." The girl finally spoke. "So you truly were not purposely trying to evade me."

"Lady, I don't even know you!" Minato spat out. "Who are you? Why were you trying to find me?"

The girl thought about his questions before bowing. "My apologies. I never introduced myself. My name is Amane."

"And I'm Minato." Was all he said and then Minato stared at the newly named Amane with an expression that said 'go on'.

"I was searching for you because I thought you might be the key I was looking for." Minato felt that word cause a spark in the back of his mind.

"The key?" He asked.

Amane shook her head. "I doubt it is 'the key' you are thinking of."

_Good. Because I do not know what 'the key' was._

There seemed to be a hint of sadness in her voice. "I thought you were MY key. The key to finding that certain person..."

"'Certain person'?" Minato asked. Amane nodded.

"My Mother...I'm trying to find her...I thought you would know where she was..." The other three cocked their heads to the side.

""Er...why is that?"" Amane shook her head uncertainly.

"I don't know...I just thought you would." Amane placed a hand over her heart. "For as long as I could remember, I've been able to see your face and I've been able to sense your presence. I could see you in both my mind and my heart, sometimes with Mother...I see these weird images sometimes...in some of them you were using that power you showed me before...I just thought..."

Then it struck Minato. "You're saying you've seen both me and your mother together?" Amane nodded. "In that case, it would explain why I don't know who you're talking about."

"What would?"

"I don't have any memories." There was a long, shocked silence following that declaration. He waited for that statement to sink in. "Two years ago, I washed up on the island where I woke up with no memories. The others welcomed me with open arms. I've been living on that island as their friend for the two years of memory that I have. They're all I have left now that I don't remember anything." His own sadness began to clearly show on his face.

"So you do not remember my Mother, do you?" Minato shook his head.

"I'm sorry..." He then decided to reveal some of the recent events that had occurred. If he wanted to find the others, he would have to trust these people with this knowledge. "Well, lately, I've had these weird voices in my head. I've also seen images of some people, although they are blurred. But bit by bit, my memories have been returning. The more I explore and learn, the more that returns to me."

"So your reason for traveling is to reclaim your memories?" Amane asked.

"No," Minato answered bluntly. "I don't care if I don't remember anything ever again...I just want to find my friends..."

"Then WE had better start searching." Amane had a renewed look of determination on her face.

"Eh?" And then he realized what she had said. "Wait, WE?!" Amane nodded.

"You said that the more you travel, the more your memories return to you. And in order to find my Mother, we must get you to remember her and find where she is." Amane explained. "We can also look for your friends while we're traveling. It could be beneficial for the both of us. I could provide you aid in your journey while you can provide me aid in mine."

There was a long silence as Minato thought over Amane's proposal. "I suppose. For now, we shall just have to trust one another. After all, if I want someone watching my back, I want it to be a powerful warrior like you."

Amane blinked at the sudden compliment, surprised. "Er...thanks. I suppose with you and your strange power would also help in finding Mother. You actually forced me to go all out."

For just a moment, Minato saw time slow down as the sound of shattering glass filled the air.

_The Empress Arcana. The strength of mind. The carrier of prosperity, creativity...and sexuality._

_I see-wait what was that last part?_

He then began to remember. He remembered a girl who was forced to bear the weight of the world on her shoulders. The person who first gave him the ability to use his powers using a special device. The person who held so much guilt and pain deep inside. Of the people he had fought beside.

Mitsuru Kirijo...senpai.

Minato felt more put together than before. He then decided to let it go as time sped up again. He then held out his hand to Amane. "Then put it there, partner." Amane reached out before gripping Minato's hand in her own.

"Very well. I do have one rule, however." She quickly grabbed Minato by the collar and gave him a piercing gaze. "As long as we are partners, you better not act against me."

Minato raised an eyebrow. "You mean like attack you on some random world for no adequate reason whatsoever? Don't worry. You'd have to be a real BITCH to do something like that." It was quite clear from his tone that he still wasn't over that. On the bright side, he had become more creative with his mocking sarcasm.

Amane's eye twitched. "What was that, worm?" The air between the two suddenly became filled with killing intent.

"Who are you calling a worm, fatass?" Amane flushed, placing her hands on her thighs.

"How dare you?! I'll have you know that this is all muscle!"

There argument continued all the way to the sword shop that Leon recommended where Minato finally purchased a real weapon and all the way to the gummi ship.

Leon and Yuffie sweat dropped all the way to the town entrance where Cid had brought the ship.

Yuffie shook her head as she waved goodbye. "How much you wanna bet they'll kill each other before they reach the next world?"

Leon didn't reply. With his eyes closed, it appeared he was thinking about something. "Perhaps they may be a better team than I thought." Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "It was faint, but I could still sense it. The bond the two had made through their battle. If anyone can find their friends or the King, it would be Minato and Amane or Sora."

Yuffie waited.

"Seven hundred munny."

"That's what I thought."

"Hey, Yuffie."

"Yeah?"

"I couldn't help but notice that the entire time Minato was talking, you were looking at his rear end. Wanna tell me what that's about?" Yuffie's face turned a deep shade of red.

"I-It's just your imagination!"

"Oh really?" It was clear this was one of the rare few times Leon was in a teasing mood. "Cos from the way you were looking at him, I could've sworn you liked h-" He then noticed the kunai knife pointed at his throat and a lethal look on Yuffie's face.

"Not a word. TO ANYONE!"

**And like that, we are done! So yeah, Amane is an OC I made up but she DOES have a connection to someone from Minato's past. Fifty bucks if you can guess who? I (do not) PROMISE to pay the money. So it's clear those two will make an interesting team not to mention that she helped Minato regain a piece of his soul. So she's going to be important in the plot...**

**I think that's about it for now...**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye~!**


	7. Chapter 6: Crash and Burn

**I know this is the only story I've been updating with lately, but I'm just having trouble with my other stuff so this is all I can work with. Don't know why, but it's starting to become an issue...Oh well. On with the story!**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing except OC's.**

**Chapter 6:**

**Crash and Burn**

Despite their bad start...Things didn't get any better between Minato and Amane. Mostly because they couldn't stop arguing for five seconds.

"I'm telling you we should just stop at the nearest world and ask for directions!" Amane screamed in Minato's ear.

Minato scowled. "And I'm telling YOU that-pay attention now-THESE WORLDS HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF EACH OTHER." He shook his head. His grip on the wheel tightened.

"Well we shouldn't know about other worlds either, shouldn't we?! Well maybe there's someone like us who has some knowledge of where the Hell we're supposed to go!"

"I'm a little surprised you managed to follow me with a brain half the size of a grain of rice." Minato stated coolly.

"What did you say, you worthless worm?!" Minato sighed.

"It doesn't matter. I'm the pilot and we'll go where I say." Amane was clearly angry by the way her skin began to crackle with electricity.

"Who died and made you king!?"

"Well I never declared any 'king'. I simply assumed since YOU were asking ME for MY help that it would be obvious-as this is MY ship-that I am in charge of where we go." He simply continued to pilot the ship, ignoring his fellow bluenette.

Minato occasionally glanced back to make sure his 'companion' was not trying to stab him in the back. It wasn't that Minato didn't like her...he just didn't trust her. She had tried to kill both him and Yuffie back in Traverse Town and then she came up with this explanation of him knowing her mother. It was all highly suspect. So he had learned to be wary of that girl.

Perhaps not the best idea to ignore her though. "You don't even know where you're going, worm! Give me that wheel!" Minato's eyes widened as Amane's arms reached past him and clamped onto the wheel, turning in in ways that made it obvious she had no idea what she was doing.

Minato, annoyed, elbowed her right in the nose, knocking her back. "Hands off."

Amane only tripped and fell backwards from shock. She stared at Minato in first shock and then outrage. Minato tensed slightly as he felt a strange demonic pressure. He turned to see Amane, her body beginning to let loose sparks of electricity.

**"You DARE!?"**

Minato thought carefully about his answer before replying flat out. "Yes."

"GUNGNIR!" Minato ducked just as Amane swung her spear over his head, cutting off the better part of the top half of his pilot's seat. His sweat dropped as he noticed the red glow in Amane's eyes.

"A little immature, don't you think?" Amane's response to this was to thrust her spear forward, causing Minato to sidestep to avoid being skewered.

He, however, did not think of what lied behind him. "Your aim sucks." was all Minato said. Amane's eye twitched.

Before long, they were face-to-face, their foreheads pressed against one another, trying to push the other back. "Well you are a miniscule WORM after all. It would be easy to miss a tiny, insignificant creature like you." Their hands were clamped in the others as they tried to push the other back like two animals competing for food.

"Well-" Minato's retort was cut short when a big, red light started to flash in the cockpit and a deafening warning siren sounded. "What?"

Both bluenettes turned to see the control panel which was currently discharging electricity through a hole created by the large spear that was stuck into it.

"Oh...shit." was Amane's response as the ship started to tilt at a ninety degree angle, causing both unbuckled passengers to fall towards the wall. They tried to get up and regain their balance, but the ship just continued to spiral out of control. Minato kept hitting the walls, the roof, or the floor, losing all sense of direction as he was spun around by the lack of stability.

He wasn't quite sure where Amane was, but he sometimes hit a slightly softer object as he was thrown about that he could assume was her.

He could just vaguely make out a brown-looking world through the windshield even though the image kept spinning around. Minato felt his head slam against something hard and the world seemed to fade away.

He blacked out.

* * *

_"...-to..."_

_A voice. It was familiar._

_"...-inato..." It was a soft and kind voice..._

_"-ake up, Minato." It was like a soft whisper. So warm._

_"Minato, you have to wake up."_

Minato groaned slightly as a orange light shined in his eyes.

"Minato...I SAID GET UP!" Minato felt the wind get knocked out of him as something slammed into the side of his stomach with a large amount of force behind it. Minato coughed up some saliva as he glared at his human alarm clock.

Amane had her eyes narrowed and stared at him with contempt. "It's about time you woke up, worm."

Minato sat up and looked to see what he was sitting on. It was a pile of...garbage. "What is this?" He asked as he pulled his hand from some weird sticky substance he didn't want to know what it was. He wiped it off on his pants before looking around. "Are we in some kind of dump?"

Amane shook her head. She pointed out towards the distance which Minato's eyes followed. He was surprised to say the least.

He peered ahead to see buildings that, upon closer examination, were actually SKYSCRAPERS made up entirely of what appeared to be the same kind of trash Minato sat on only in block form. They weren't haphazardly stacked either. It was neat and perfect like someone had spent quite a lot of time to stack them in such a way.

This air certainly wasn't fresh. It was thick with an uncomfortable warmth and foul with smells that he didn't know could exist. It was NOT a compliment. It wasn't surprising considering most of the land for miles around was covered in garbage.

"I scouted it out a few hours ago. When I came back, you were still unconscious." Minato blinked at the strange emotion that mixed into her voice. If he didn't know any better, he could've sworn it might've been worry or relief. Before he could figure it out, Amane noticed him looking at her and either emotions were buried under a scowl.

Minato still felt his head aching as he forced himself to his feet. He turned around to face the ship which had taken an unfortunate nosedive into the ground. There would be no getting it out without outside help to get it out of the ground. He turned back to Amane. "Did you find anybody who could help us out?"

"No." Minato sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well I guess we could see if anyone-"

"There ISN'T anyone." Amane stated more firmly. Minato blinked.

"What?" And then Minato noticed it. That disturbing feeling. It wasn't the smell or the look of the land around him that disturbed him. It was the silence. The cold, intense silence. He looked around him, but there didn't appear to be any life whatsoever other than him and Amane. The disturbing loneliness that had swallowed the atmosphere. Not even the wind could be heard.

_Dead_ was the only word that could describe that world.

"Was this place attacked by the Heartless?" Minato asked his female associate. Amane shook her head, her shoulders tensed with her guard clearly raised. Apparently the silence bugged her too.

"No. If this world was attacked, the darkness would've easily have been able to completely swallow it if the Heartless already consumed everyone." Amane scanned their surroundings again. "Besides, if everyone had their hearts devoured, there would probably a massive army of those creatures around." It was a fair explanation. Heartless could multiply like-

Then another thought struck Minato. "Wait...We've been here a few hours. Have we been attacked while I was out?"

Amane, confused, raised an eyebrow. "No. Why?"

Minato tapped on his chin. "So we haven't run into ANY Heartless? Don't you find that strange? I mean with them swallowing entire worlds, I at least think we should've run into at least one by now." That sentence took a few minutes to sink in. Suddenly the silence became even heavier than it did before.

"W-Well maybe it's because this world is ALREADY like this that they aren't around. Maybe they wouldn't bother with a world that's already destroyed." But it sounded like the girl was more trying to reassure herself more than Minato.

_Is she...afraid?_ Minato mused to himself. Then he thought better. Amane wasn't quivering in her boots. She was just about as tense as Minato was.

"Well, you want to stop and ask for directions, we'll stop and ask for directions." Amane glared.

"ARE YOU SAYING THIS IS MY FAULT?!" She screeched. Minato stared dubiously at her.

"As I recall, it was YOUR spear that broke the control panel and caused the ship to crash in the first place, was it not?"

Amane opened her mouth, ready to make a point shortly before blushing lightly from embarrassment. She crossed her arms and turned away, mumbling something to herself. Minato had already lost interest so he started walking in the opposite direction.

"I'm going to see if you missed someone. Maybe find SOMEBODY who can explain where the Hell we are."

Minato rubbed his temples. _Why did I bring her along again?_

"Hey! Wait up!" Minato turned to see Amane running to catch up to him. They continued making their way through the garbage buildings. "No way you're leaving me to watch the ship!" She glared once again.

"I never TOLD YOU to watch the ship." Minato corrected. "I SAID that I was simply going to go look for other people. YOU are free to do whatever you want." With that, the argument was once again over, drifting off into the endless silence that still swallowed that world. With the heavy feeling they felt, Minato was beginning to wonder if he preferred arguing over that silence.

Amane didn't even look at him once, but kept walking forward beside Minato, never moving a centimeter closer or further to him. She occasionally looked towards any horizon, doing the same as Minato and looking for some sign of life. The same questions continued to swirl around in Minato's head: 'Where is everybody?' 'What happened here?' 'Why is there so much garbage?'

Minato wasn't even sure how much time they had spent walking. They could've walked miles or mere feet and he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Wherever they went, the stench and the sights were exactly the same.

Then, much to his surprise and relief, he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. Turning so he could see it clearly, he quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

He'd been expecting a human or animal, instead, in the distance, there was a pearly white egg shaped...THING levitating off the ground, steadily gazing at its surroundings. Its head was also floating about an inch off of its body, and on the front of the head it had a black screen that displayed two blue oval shaped LED eyes, but no mouth. And on its body, floating an inch away from each sides, it had smooth flat white metals that were obviously its arms, though they lacked fingers.

It certainly didn't look human, but it was pretty easy to tell that it was made of metal, so Minato had eventually decided it was a machine of some sort. Perhaps a robot. It seemed a little out of place in this world, though. A sleek spotless robot like that didn't fit in well with the dirty land.

Minato turned to Amane. "Well...at least it's someone...or something." He wasn't quite sure which to classify that robot as.

"SomeONE." Amane stated firmly. Minato stared, but the emotion on her face quickly faded. They made their way closer the the 'person', Minato waving slightly.

"Hey!" He called out. The machine ignored him. Minato lowered his hand slightly before shouting out even louder. "HEEEEEEY! Over here! Are you an inhabitant of this world?!" Still no response. The floating being didn't seem to have any consciousness. Instead, it emitted an eery blue light from its "chest" on the ground. For a few seconds the light was focused on it, then there were three beeping sounds, followed by a negative "diiink" that reminded Minato of the sound a computer makes when access is denied to a certain website...or what it should sound like from what Sora and the others had told him while he was back on the island.. Starting to feel irritated, Minato called louder, "At least tell me why the world looks like this! OR maybe direct me towards someone who WILL!"

Still nothing. It was busy scanning something else with the blue light, but again with apparently negative results. Wondering if he was just too far away to be heard, he edged closer to where the robot floated, his footsteps echoing through the thick air, making it sound like someone else was walking very close by.

The robot, still ignoring him, turned its back to Minato as it continued scanning its surrounding.

Minato frowned. He gave Amane a confused look, but she appeared to be staring intently at the machine. She hadn't put in a single word yet. Ignoring the wariness this caused him to have around his fellow bluenette, Minato stepped toward the robot.

"Hey. Where's-"

"Look out!" Amane had faster reflexes than Minato, allowing her to pull him out of the way as the robot whipped its body around to face him, pointing its hand which had somehow transformed into a gun at him, letting loose a blast of blue energy. Minato gave Amane a quick look of appreciation before turning back to the robot with an annoyed expression.

He took a step back as he drew his sword from the pocket dimension it usually vanished off to. Amane, finally snapping out of it, drew out her spear.

"You have some nerve!" Amane shouted. "The guy, while a stinking worm, was just trying to ask you some questions!" Minato stared questioningly at Amane. He was uncertain whether he should thank her for backing him up or spiting her for insulting him again.

They were taken by surprise when robot glared at them, the blue lights that were undoubtedly its eyes now curved downward in a cold, half-moon-shaped glower. "Who are you?" Minato blinked. The voice was most certainly feminine, but it sounded like a mechanical message rather than a human talking. The only thing that was certain was that this robot was certainly female. A robot with an actual gender...

Somehow Minato didn't find that odd.

"Who are you?" the robot asked with the same tone.

Minato tensed. "And how is that any of your business?" With everything Minato has gone through, he had learned to be a little cynical when somebody is trying to stick their nose in his business. Usually when someone confronts him or asks for his name, they usually want to kill him. So for now he would assume this...'girl' was not an ally.

For all he knew, she was allied with the Heartless and responsible for all of this. Whatever the case, Minato assumed she did not like him.

He was beginning to think the feeling was mutual. Things had turned into a tense stand-off between the two sides.

The robot didn't once lower her gun. Minato knew at some point their stand-off would've dissolved into a fight had it not been for the 'interruption'.

"NOOOOOO!" Minato felt something in front of him as he took a step, causing him to trip and sending him face-first into the dirt. Today just wasn't his day. He turned to see what he tripped over only to see...

Amane blinked. "A box?" Her lips curved into a smile as she began to snort, resisting the urge to break out into full-blow laughter. "You tripped over a box! What a klutz!" But Minato felt suspicious. He was certain that tiny, brown box hadn't been there a moment ago.

Nobody threw it because only he and the two around him were the only life forms in the area for all he knew.

One second of staring at the box later, his question was answered. Underneath the box, two yellow and brown treads shakily folded out, and on both sides of the box, long skinny arms came out, attached to three fingered hands that looked like shovels, and on top of the box unfolded what appeared to be binoculars. Another robot, Minato realized, watching the binoculars peer at him shyly. He could see on the inside of the binoculars that the box-robot was trying to focus his eyes to train on Minato, though he only succeeded in tilting the binoculars downward, making a sad and scared expression. Unlike the egg robots' cold and chilling blue eyes, the box's deep dark eyes were innocent and warm, mixed with curiosity and wonder. Its dirty exterior and body made it look much more like an inhabitant of the world. Minato felt himself immediately soften upon seeing the box's pitiful eyes.

Amane reacted much more dramatically. Before anyone could speak, she scooped up the block robot in her arms and began to cradle it like a baby. "OH MY GOD HE'S SO CUTE~!" Minato's sweat dropped. "I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU AND TAKE CARE OF YOU, YOU ADORABLE, LITTLE THING~!"

Minato could see the poor, mechanical block beginning to feel dizzy in Amane's arms.

"Um...Amane...maybe you should-I don't know-put him down." Amane pouted at Minato, which he had to admit was actually kind of cute. But she chose to set the little block down as Minato asked.

Minato knelt down and and offered his hand gently to the block robot. He smiled softly. "Hi there. What's your name, little guy?"

The small robot must've been calmed down by Minato's voice because it slowly reached out with its shovel-like hands and shook Minato's. Minato winced slightly as he could feel all of the dirty and germs on that robot's hands being wiped off on his own. He wasn't a germophobe, but he could tell that the robot's hands had not been clean of any garbage in a long time.

"Waaaaaalll-Eeeee..." It's voice was somewhat masculine, at least enough that it was easy to describe this new robot, 'Wall-E', as a boy. He sounded like he had swallowed a tank of helium and was speaking through a computer.

Minato nodded. "My name's Minato." He gestured to Amane. "And that crazy chick who tried to shake your brains around is Ama-" He almost bit on his tongue as he felt a karate chop smash into the top of his head, cutting his sentence short. Amane glared down at Minato. Amane smiled unusually brightly at Wall-E.

"What Minato was trying to say is that I'm Amane."

Wall-E glanced back and forth between the two. "Miiiinaaatooo...Aaamane...Minato. Amane." Minato smiled slightly as the small machine worked on pronouncing their names.

"It's nice to meet you, Wall-E." He was about to ask Wall-E what he was doing there when Minato noticed that Wall-E's attention was directed towards the egg-shaped robot. There was something resembling a wistful expression on the part of him that made up his face.

"...Eeeevvvaaa..." Wall-E ignored Minato and rolled right past him before stopping right next to the egg-shaped robot. "Eeeevvvaaa!" He shouted even more excitedly. Much to the surprise of both Amane and Minato, the robot actually started giggling.

Minato blinked. He gave a suspicious glance towards 'Eva'. "So you know Eva?"

'Eva' turned and returned to using her glare directed towards Minato, who was taken back by the sudden hostility. "Eve." She said sternly. Minato raised his hands in surrender, not wanting to antagonize a friend of Wall-E's any further.

"OK. OK." And then Minato remembered something. "Say, Eve. You wouldn't have happened to see anyone else around here by any chance, would you? Anyone named Sora, Riku, or Kairi?" It may have been a stupid question considering the lack of life in the vicinity, but it didn't hurt to ask.

Eve glared for several seconds, but apparently lost interest in her dislike for Minato, seeming rather bemused by his question. Minato sighed, understanding her answer.

"Thanks anyway." Minato then pointed a finger back at Amane. "What about some chick who looks like Amane?" Eve actually gave a somewhat real response by shaking her head. Rather than seeming grateful that Minato asked for her, Amane seemed angry.

"How DARE YOU speak about Mother in such a disrespectful fashion!?"

"What-"

Whatever Minato was going to say was cut short by a horrendous noise that pierced through the air. Minato saw a blinking red light going off on Wall-E's body. He looked past Sora and Eve with a look of horror on his face.

"Eva!" He kept gesturing wildly in different directions, and stuttering out his and Eve's name so quickly and desperately. He knew something that they didn't.

"What is it, Wall-E?" Minato asked. Wall-E was still panicking and waving his arms all over the place. Eve seemed to think that he was trying to attack, because she drew her gun out again and aimed it threateningly at Wall-E.

Amane couldn't help but roll her eyes with Minato severely tempted to copy her gesture.

Did Eve NOT notice how scared he sounded? He didn't even look like he was armed with any sort of weapon, and mere seconds ago she was smiling at Wall-E like they were long time friends.

Minato tensed as he began to become aware of what Wall-E was panicking about. His eyes widened in horror.

"Amane! We gotta get back to the ship!" Amane stared at him questioningly before looking in the direction he was. Her eyes widened as well.

Coming towards them at break-neck speed was a gigantic cloud of dust and sand mixed with flying garbage. The cloud was so thick that Minato figured he could drown in it. Eve and Wall-E could take shelter anywhere as they didn't need to breathe, but the gummi ship was the only source of fresh air probably in the entire world.

Minato could feel the surprise in Amane as she tensed after he grabbed her hand and began to pull her forward.

"We gotta go!" Amane eventually took the hint and began to run as well, but it took only moments for the storm to overtake them. Minato felt himself lose his grasp on Amane as they were separated in the terrible storm. He had to covered his mouth with his shirt to keep from inhaling the dirty. He occasionally felt a piece of garbage scrape against his body. He could've sworn he heard Eve's voice somewhere, but he was more focused on his and Amane's survival.

"Amane!" He called out. He couldn't very well just leave her even if she WAS a pain in the ass. He couldn't help the twinge of fear that welled up in his chest. He realized if he spent anymore time out there, he could die. He clenched his teeth, realizing he had one option left. He managed to focus enough to radiate blue energy as a tarot card began to float down in front of him.

"Perso-" He was so focused on his task that he didn't see the large and rather heavy block of garbage until it slammed right into his head. Minato dropped to the ground like a rag doll, his vision blurring.

He saw a vague image shortly before losing consciousness.

A blonde-haired girl looking down right at him. "Minato..." It was a faint whisper, but it filled with so much warmth. He felt a familiar cold and dirty hand grab his and a more human-like hand grasp his other.

Minato passed out with a slight small on his face.

* * *

Minato woke up, groaning. When he sat up, he felt his head brush up against something above him. It knocked the object off-balance and caused it to crash to the ground. He flinched as he heard the object break apart on the ground. When he felt the spot next to him, he picked up the object and observed it.

It was a train like that would be found in a train set. He then turned to see the block-like robot in front of him, staring at him with those adorable, worried eyes of his. Minato uncertainly held out the train to Wall-E with a slightly apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry." Wall-E gratefully took the train from Minato's hands before placing it on the shelf behind him. He even let out a cheerful coo at Minato having awoken. Eve was right to him, staring around the area in wonder, and Amane-

"About time you woke up, worm!" -was still a total bitch. But Minato's head hurt too much for him to care.

"Where-?" He looked around and observed the area around him. He appeared to be in some garage of some sort, but it was filled with what some people called 'junk' while Minato called it 'interesting stuff'. All of the shelves around him were filled to the brim with odd knick-knacks, decorations, and even toys Minato recognized. Outside the door of the garage, Minato could still hear the storm raging.

Amane smirked. "To summarize it, Wall-E here saved our lives, leading us to his little hideaway here." Minato turned to Wall-E. "He even went through all of the trouble of dragging you through the dirt all by himself." Wall-E seemed to give Amane a confused expression, but Minato didn't really notice. His attention was focused on the small machine.

"Thank you." He then looked around at all of the fascinating objects that surrounded them. Some of those objects he had only ever heard about from the others. "You live here?" Despite the situation he was in, Minato felt a little excited. He picked off a small block from one of the shelves. A rubix cube, the others had called it.

Amane watched with a hint of amusement on her face as Minato went back and forth between each and every object, playing with them like an excited child. Eve seemed equally interested in the objects.

As they spent more time weathering out the storm, Amane and Minato learned a bit about Wall-E and how he lived.

Despite being a machine, Wall-E clearly possessed sentience and seemed to have quite a bit of fondness for most of the possessions he had. Minato couldn't help but notice the unusual amount of attention Wall-E seemed to be paying towards Eve.

Amane seemed to notice it as well and had an amused smile on her face which confused Minato. What was she smiling about?

While Minato was absolutely blind with what Wall-E felt, but he did recognize something. The lonely look in his eyes was the same exact look he usually wore whenever his friends had to go home every night.

* * *

Amane knew that Wall-E's feelings went much deeper than that.

He didn't just think of Eve as a new friend-he was in love with her. Head over heels in love. Amane gave Wall-E a look of sympathy. Eve didn't appear to return the feelings. She did appear to like him, but not in that kind of way. She seemed more dedicated to searching for...whatever she was searching for. Amane found herself glaring at Eve again Despite not knowing Minato very well, Amane felt she somewhat understood him: Whenever he had a mission to do, he always put his friends before anything else. He knew that completing his objective was important, but he always found himself caring more for his friend's safety above all...that was the kind of person Minato struck her as. Eve looked like the exact opposite: Mission always comes first. But how could she ignore how alone Wall-E was? How could she ignore such an adorable robot?

Minato's understanding didn't go as far and he had apparently found himself simply humming along with the tune playing from whatever cassette Wall-E had put in. He didn't smile, but he was swaying a bit with a feeling of nostalgia radiating off of him-a wish to see that certain day yet again.

* * *

Minato had never heard this song before, but he had to admit he liked it. He had come to appreciate seemingly meaningless things ever since he had started to reclaim those Arcana things. The pieces of his soul.

While he knew the others wouldn't care for all of the dirt, he wondered what they would think of the world he was on. Of the people he had met.

Minato turned in surprise when he heard a sharp clang. He turned to see that an object from one of the other shelves had fallen off and landed on Wall-E's head. Everyone chuckled a bit.

Minato only stopped when he noticed it appeared Wall-E was looking for something specific.

"Hey, Minato," started Amane, "We should get back to the ship. The storm's seemed to have calmed down. I think we could fix up the ship if we could just dig it out of the trash its buried in."

Minato sighed. "It can't be helped." He looked back to Wall-E who came back into sight carrying a boot. Inside said boot was something Minato could easily recognize. A plant. It was small and weak, but there was no denying it. Possibly the only life around for miles. In a planet of ruin and decay, that single sprout was a beacon of hope. "It looks like this world might not be dead after all." He stated, slight relief leaking into his voice.

Eve also seemed to bear some interest in that small plant as she began to scan it again. Everyone flinched when there was a loud beeping sound. Eve's scanner was beeping like crazy. There was only a moment to react as a green light started blinking on her chest. Even's eyes, instead of the usual ovals, became impossibly wide circles. Her body suddenly became as stiff as a board and her chest slid open like an electric-powered door. A blue beam of some sort shot out of the opening and wrapped around the plant before pulling into her. The door slid shut and then Eve's face/screen went black. No LED eyes and her body had completely snapped together, returning to its previous egg-shaped appearance.

The only sign she was still functioning was the green light blinking on her chest and the fact she was somehow still floating.

"...Eva...?" Wall-E asked uncertainly. When Eve didn't respond, Wall-E seemed to panic. Amane and Minato weren't entirely unaffected either. They just stared, eyes wide at what had just occurred. They were certain by the reaction her body gave that that plant was what she was looking for, but it seemed irrational to just shut down like that.

"Eve?" Minato carefully nudged Eve's unmoving form, causing her body to wobbled a bit. "It's time to wake up." But there was no reaction. It wasn't like the lack of reaction she gave before. This time she wasn't just ignoring him...it was like someone had performed a force shutdown.

"Eva?" Wall-E was in full panic-mode. "E-Eva!"

Minato stared sadly as Wall-E seemed to sink into a bout of depression. He and Amane exchanged looks and despite not liking the other for the most part, they had an instant understanding: They would stay with Wall-E for the time being.

They may be sidetracked from their goal, but they couldn't just leave the poor guy there. Minato gently placed a hand on Wall-E's shoulder.

"Don't worry. We'll find a way to wake her up."

Wall-E gave Minato the most grateful look that kind of made the gesture even more meaningful. Amane smiled reassuringly.

Little did they know how far that decision would take them.

**Finished! Yep. Wall-E is the Disney movie Minato and co. is interacting with. Let's see how this goes! Minato still don't entirely trust Amane and...**

**Yeah.**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	8. Chapter 7: Blastoff

**Let us continue with the second part of the Wall-E arc! Cos I don't feel like rewriting the entire movie, I'm going to be time skipping a bit.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except OC's.**

**Chapter 7:**

**Blastoff**

Amane and Minato couldn't help but feel more well-adapted to the world they had landed on. Despite their misgivings, they had somehow ended up staying for much longer than a few hours.

More like a few days. Every time the two tried to work up the nerve to leave, they looked back to Wall-E's pitiful state as he waited and seemed to pray for Eve to wake up. They had tried everything they could to try and wake her up. While they were asleep at the time, Amane and Minato were pretty sure that Wall-E had tried using lightning to give her a jump start if they were to judge from the charred umbrella lying next to the garage.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of life, the two had also had to go without food for the past few days.

While Amane didn't seem to mind, Minato couldn't help but start whining by that point.

"So...hungry..." He was currently face-down on the floor of the garage with Amane shook her head.

"Well deal with it." Amane replied bluntly. "We still don't have the slightest idea how the Hell we're gonna wake up Eve let alone figure out how to dig out the ship. So we're just going to have to tough it out."

Minato's lifted his head up from the ground, a serious expression on his face that was severely lacking due to the fact he was still lying on the ground. "I know this may sound negative, but we have to consider that _other possibility_."

Amane hesitated. "What possibility?"

"The possibility that Eve may never wake up." They sighed. While the two have still been arguing (except when Wall-E was around), they HAVE been participating in some conversations. In one such conversations, they discussed the ever increasing chances that Eve may be broken and probably couldn't wake up again. Even if she did, she might not be the same.

Minato hadn't been on truly good terms with Eve, but he hated to see Wall-E so broken up. Amane sighed.

"Well we'll just have to hope that that isn't the truth. I mean we can't stay here forever. And when we leave, I don't want to leave that cute block all on his own."

Minato grumbled as he laid his face flat onto the filthy ground yet again. "Yeah. Wake me up when food arrives." Amane's eye twitch.

"Is your stomach all you can think about?!" Minato raised his head to shoot her a glare.

"No. I can also think about how much of a total..." There was a loud growling sound before he could finish that statement. His face slackened before he slammed it face-down again. "...too hungry..." Minato was seriously beginning to question Amane's stamina. She showed no signs of hunger whatsoever. It made him question if she was even human.

Or maybe she was eating his organs while he was sleeping. The unimportant ones he wouldn't miss.

This was one of the hunger-induced conspiracy theories he had come up with.

Minato still couldn't figure Amane out. She seemed like a moral person, but at the same time he felt an odd barrier between them. Like there was something she wanted to keep others from seeing. He usually shrugged off that feeling, thinking it was something personal. EVERYONE had something personal they hid away. While it wasn't healthy to keep those emotions bottled up, it was the individual's choice what to do with those emotions.

He was literally shaken out of his thoughts when the ground began to shake violently. Minato fought against his hunger and leaped to his feet, stumbling due to the unsteady ground. Objects in the garage were knocked off the shelves and fell violently to the ground.

"An earthquake?"

Amane shook her head. "I looked around! There shouldn't be any major fault lines near here!" Amane looked towards the open door. "Outside then?!"

The two both ran out the door and their jaws dropped. While they were in shock, they both held a small amount of happiness at the sight.

A giant rocket descended from the sky. A rocket that was no doubt filled with people! Maybe someone could help them dig their ship out or maybe give them a decent meal (Minato hoped more for the latter than the former). There might also be other robots. At least one of them had to know how otherwise the giant claw lifting Eve wouldn't-Wait...

"What the-!?" Minato immediately reacted and started running towards the ship as the giant claw that was attached to it lifted the comatose Eve up into the air towards the main body. He had to do SOMETHING. Tell Wall-E or-

"EVAAAAA!" came Wall-E's worried and frightened voice. Minato watched as Wall-E moved as fast as his treads could carry him. Even as fast as he was going, Wall-E would never make it in time..._unless..._

Minato focused what little energy he had into making a small, blue aura radiate from his body. He wouldn't be able to sustain it for long, but it was all he had.

"Izanagi!" Minato crushed a tarot card in his hand as the swordsman appeared out of thin air. "Come on! We got us a flight to catch!" Amane didn't have much time to object as both she and Minato were scooped up into Izanagi's free hand. They flew towards the ship at breakneck speed. When Izanagi caught up to the small robot, Minato reached out his hand and grabbed Wall-E's own hand and scooped him up to join them in Izanagi's giant hand.

They didn't even slow Izanagi down with their weight. Wall-E screamed at the top of his hypothetical robotic lungs.

"EVAAAAA!"

The rocket was warming up its engines, preparing to take off again. Minato grunted as he poured slightly more of his power into Izanagi to increase their speed. If they slowed their pace for even a second, they wouldn't be able to make it in time. Time seemed to slow down. The rocket started to leave the ground.

Minato's eyes darted quickly during the slowed time, searching for a way to beat the hopeless situation they were in.

Then he found it. A ladder. It was facing right towards them. With any luck, they'd be able to grab onto it. They had to increase their speed even more to keep up with the rocket as it began a vertical ascent. Minato reached his hand towards the ladder, but it continued to evade his grasp. He glanced at Wall-E. "Sorry about this."

Before he could change his mind, Minato grabbed Wall-E in one hand and chucked him higher towards the ladder. Minato was able to breathe a little again when Wall-E's mechanical hand clamped firmly onto one of the bars.

Minato turned to Amane. "You next!" Amane blinked.

"Eh?" Before she could object, Minato grabbed her and threw her as well. She was much heavier than her well-toned appearance suggested. "YOU BASTAAAAARD!" Minato stood on Izanagi's hand, stumbling a bit due to his ever-draining energy. He had to make this one jump count. He mentally order Izanagi to pull back his hand and throw him.

Minato jumped with no time to spare as Izanagi vanished to stop the drain on Minato. He just barely managed to clear the jump, grabbing onto the second to last bar on the ladder.

In hindsight, he did not think this idea through very well.

Minato started climbing up after Amane and Wall-E, the wind whipping through his body like knives and almost yanking on his hair. It was not a pleasant sensation. He couldn't even open his eyes due to the force of the wind as well as his mouth whipping back from the G-force. He could just barely hear Wall-E's high-pitched scream through his popping ears. He also knew Amane was shouting something, but he couldn't quite make it out.

It was so difficult to keep his sense of self due to the various sensations he was feeling. At one point, Minato squinted one eye open, watching as they passed a thick cloud of dirt, catching glimpses of what appeared to be satellites (or that is what they were called from what he had been told). They all possessed a logo that said "BnL". Behind them, a row of stars began to open up and they were approaching space at rapid speed-

Minato blinked (with quite a bit of effort).

_Ah. I really haven't thought this through._

Unlike a certain mechanical friend of theirs, he and Amane couldn't quite survive in space. He felt something collide with the side of his head.

_I'm really hating this whole 'knocked unconscious' thing..._ was his last thought before passing out again.

* * *

Minato wanted to get up. He really did. But he knew the moment he got up again, the universe (the smug jackass) would just choose to knock him out again in some painful way. He might as well just wait-

"Miiinaatooo..."

-in the depths of sp-

Minato opened his eyes, blinking in surprise that his head had not, in fact, exploded or frozen or whatever happens when you're tossed into the cold, dark depths of space.

In face, he felt oddly comfortable. Something that shouldn't exist in space. Minato was severely tempted to go back to sleep when the voice called out again, slightly more distressed.

"Miiinaaatooo!"

"HE SAID GET UP, YOU LAZY WORM!"

Minato's eyes snapped open and he at first panicked when all he saw was the bright glowing of hundreds of stars.

He remembered crashing, Wall-E, Eve, and the pain of jumping onto a rocket.

Minato turned around and noticed why he wasn't floating about into the vacuum of space. At some point before he lost consciousness, Amane must've grabbed onto him because she was currently holding him by the sleeve of his jacket, an annoyed look on her face...with a hint of what may have been worry. That wasn't the strangest part. The strangest part was the fact he was able to breathe at all.

Minato was beginning to wonder if there were ANY laws of physics that couldn't be shattered by this new reality that Minato had entered after leaving the island. He took a breath before looking up to see that she wasn't holding onto the rocket either. She too was being suspended by space the only thing keeping HER attached to the rocket being Wall-E. There was a certain look of worry in his...er...eyes. Wall-E had one of his hands clamped onto Amane's own arm.

Walle had been holding her hand the whole time so she wouldn't float away. His other hand was still holding the ladder of the rocket. Minato must've been out for a while-he could feel sweat forming on his hand that was still being held by Amane. Neither were even sure where the rocket was heading if it was heading anywhere at all. It didn't help that there was an awkward silence between the two.

She then explained what's been happening since he fell unconscious.

For the past few hours, Wall-E had been busying himself by watching the starry skies that they crossed while glancing at Minato's unconscious form on every occasion to see if he was waking up. For a while, he'd been afraid that Minato was shut down and had become unresponsive just like Eve, but people like him seemed to recover faster since he woke up three hours after being knocked out.

"So what do we do now?" Minato asked.

Amane sighed. "Well with the ship moving like this, all we can do is wait for it to stop and try to find a way in to rescue Eve." She then looked out towards the stars. "But for now I suppose we just enjoy the sights."

Minato understood what she meant. Now that he was awake, he had the pleasure of watching as the entire universe seemed to pass them by. It was rather interesting and fun. Every now and then, Amane or Wall-E would point out a group of stars that formed pictures. Amane told him they were called 'constellations'. Back on the island, Minato had only know as much about the world off the small island as much as his friends told him. They had never really talked about the stars. Constellations were such beautiful sights. There were also shooting stars and odd-looking space clouds. It never got boring because space was vast and endless, full of wondrous sights.

No enemies, nothing to disrupt the peace. It was nice.

But Minato had to admit he felt a little sad that he couldn't share this sight with Sora, Riku, or Kairi. They would've loved to see something like this. He looked back at his two companions. It was better to see it with one friend and Amane rather than with nobody at all.

Minato felt so at ease where they were. Minato, wishing for a new conversation topic, began to talk about his friends and about his island. Wall-E smiled enthusiastically, but he didn't seem to fully understand what Minato was talking about. Considering he was in that wasteland for most of his life, he probably didn't even know what an island was. He just seemed happy that Minato was enjoying himself.

Minato felt slightly uncomfortable about Amane hearing his story, but she didn't even seem to be paying attention which he was grateful for (although he was certain she was only pretending to do such a thing). When the rocket stopped, they would all have to try and find a way to bring Eve back. When Minato thought about it, perhaps that was why he wanted to rescue Eve so badly even though they hadn't been on good terms:

Guilt.

He felt guilty since he had left Wall-E and Eve on their own. If he had just watched them, he might've been able to have prevented their current situation.

An hour later, the three looked straight ahead to see that they were heading toward some ominous purple clouds. The rocket appeared to be slowing down.

Then they saw it. Behind the clouds, hidden by the darkness, was a ship. A space ship. But it looked very peculiar-more like a gigantic cruise ship that was multiplied 200 times. Minato thought the rocket was big, but that ship made the rocket seem like the size of a mere ant. On the bow of the ship, the word "Axiom" stood out in bright red letters, followed by the same logo on the satellites from earlier: "BnL" though parts of the word looked slightly faded. The rocket itself turned sideways like a car going into paralel park, and it started to shift ever so slowly near the bottom of the ship. Two long blue lasers appeared out of the ship and were aimed at the bow and stern of the rocket, dragging it, and its unknown passengers, inside.

When the door behind the rocket closed, the weightlessness of space wore off. Minato, Amane, and Wall-E collapsed on the ladder, tumbling ungracefully onto the bridge now attached to the rocket. They felt a little heavy due to side effects of drifting in space for the past few hours, but at least they were at a destination.

Steel gray walls were in every direction Minato found, and elevators and mechanically sliding doors were at every corner. Some panels that held robotic arms were coming out and taking care of the rocket: Repairing broken parts, refueling, cleaning bits of dirt, and they even had the courtesy to attach a new bumper sticker. "I love BnL" It displayed proudly. The entire room itself was big enough to hold ten more rockets. Minato could only imagine how big the rest of the ship could be.

But now was not the time to be sightseeing. It was back to business. They had to get Eve out of there-

Speaking of Eve, her vacant body was suddenly right in front of them in some kind of box, alongside several other robots that looked exactly like her- only difference was that Eve was the only one with a blinking green light on her chest.

"Eva..." Wall-E reached for his Eve, looking like he was going to pry her from the box. As if the machine sensed Wall-E's goal, a claw opened out of a hatch in the ceiling and grabbed Eve, dragging her to another part of the room that was, thankfully, only a few a feet far. Only downside was that there was a pretty long jump from the bridge to the ground. Minato picked up Wall-E, who had grown worried when he saw Eve getting carried away.

"Follow that bot!" Amane shouted before leaping off the bridge, landing a little more gracefully than when they first came. Minato followed after her, stumbling a bit as he was still growing used to the large drain using Persona had put on his body.

Eve was still floating in the same place the claw had put her, only now she was again lined up with her sister probes. Wall-E eagerly tread to where she was and was about to pull her away. Minato and Amane were about to help when they heard something approaching. "Hide!" Minato hissed.

Wall-E panicked and scrambled around as he tried to find a place to hide. Eventually, he settled upon getting behind Eve and folding into a tiny box. He was completely unnoticeable if you looked from the front of Eve. Minato and Amane on the other hand were too tall to crouch into an uncomfortably small form and hide behind a probe, so he took to diving behind the one of the rocket wings and peering over it.

Approaching the probes was another sort of robot, white and levitating like Eve, except it was shaped like a long skinny trapezoid, and where eyes should've been it instead had a red light that was blazing and ringing like a police siren. It was unusually tiny, so it didn't appear all that threatening. No, the threatening looking ones were the robots behind it. They were rectangularly shaped, and on top of their heads were yellow flashing sirens. On the front of their bodies were computer screens of some sort that currently displayed a black blank screen. They towered behind the red sirening robot like dwarfish, but bulky bodyguards. Like Eve, they were probably armed with a weapon of some sort.

The red sirened robot stopped before each of the probes, scanning them all for a matter of seconds. Finally he stopped on the Eve that Wall-E loved, and he froze all of a sudden after he finished scanning her. Then an ear splitting alarm rang throughout the entire room, and every single light in the room turned as green as Eve's blinking light for some reason. And the blank screens on the bulky bodyguard robots now showed the same plant insignia that Eve had.

A red light shot out of a hole in the red siren robot's chest and encircled Eve. Like an invisible hand was picking her up, the red light forced her body onto a cart that happened to be nearby. It didn't even notice Wall-E, who was now without a hiding place and staring at Eve quite frightfully. The cart carrying Eve, and now the red siren robot too, seemed to act on its own accord as it followed a blue line that stretched into the mechanical sliding doors into another part of the ship.

"Eva!" Wall-E immediately chased after her. Minato sighed as he scratched his head.

"Looks like we got a lot more than we bargained for, eh?" He then gave chase after the two robots, Amane following after him.

Though he wasn't really expecting what he saw in the bigger and angular room: thousands upon thousands of robots were passing by on a steel gray road. Minato could barely make out just one.

Eve's cart was turning again. With a jolt, Wall-E immediately followed her again, Minato coming up just behind him.

Now what was in the next room was what surprised Minato the most.

His jaw dropped as he realized what he was looking at were humans. Perhaps from a different world as him considering what they looked like. Every last one of them were abnormally obese. Not just some, but ALL of them were horribly overweight. It seemed impossible that this many people be this large. They appeared to be talking to one another via messaging programs in those hovering chairs of theirs.

"Eva!" came a familiar voice, jarring Minato out of his thoughts. Minato looked around the passageway only to realize that their cube-shaped friend was no longer in sight.

"Oh boy." Minato stated, panicked.

"You lost him, didn't you?" Amane asked. Minato looked around awkwardly.

"Well...I-uh..." Then he noticed something. "Wait! So did you!" He pointed out.

Amane's eyes narrowed. "That's because I was making sure you weren't trying to give me the slip, so I had no opportunity to keep an eye on Wall-E."

Minato blinked. Then it hit him. He wasn't the only one having distrust in their partner. Amane probably had been expecting a knife in her back the entire time they were traveling together.

He couldn't help but appreciate the irony. Rather than focus on how cold things had gotten, Minato tried to focus on his surroundings.

All around him were various shops, restaurants, and advertisement signs (pointless if you asked him since no one was paying the signs any mind) that displayed strange varieties like "food in a cup", and the one thing that all these places had in common was that they were run by robots. On the ceiling hundreds of feet above them, a holographic screen showed a beautiful blue sky that could easily be mistaken for the real one.

"Geez. This place is enormous. How the heck are we supposed to fin-" Minato's thoughts were interrupted by a loud growling noise from his stomach. Minato felt light-headed as his hunger finally returned to him. He fell face-forward.

"YOU GOTTA BE JOKING ME!" Amane shrieked.

"...hungry..." He then began to slowly crawl across the floor towards the concessions like a worm (which Amane appreciated the humor of), dodging hover chairs that passed him by. Amane shook her head in disappointment before following after him.

Once they arrived, the robot operating the stands didn't seem to bat an...'eye' at Minato.

"How may I help you, sir?" It asked helpfully.

"...You got any sushi?" Minato asked as he fell flat onto the counter. Hey, he'd grown an insatiable craving for it. While most people would get sick of fish, Minato felt it was the only thing he could eat.

"Sushi cup coming right up." A mechanical claw lowered carrying a plastic drinking cup before lowering a dispenser as well. It sprayed a strange pink-colored liquid into the cup before sealing it with a top and inserting a straw into it. Minato stared at it warily before inserting the straw into his mouth.

He took a sip before smacking his lips. "Not bad." he admitted. He turned to Amane, offering her his cup. "Hey, you gotta try this."

Amane waved it away. "I'll pass." Minato raised an eyebrow.

"You sure? You haven't eaten anything for even longer than I have...haven't...you know what I mean." Amane shook her head.

"I said I'll pass." She said only slightly angrier.

"What bug crawled up your ass?"

Amane slammed her fist onto the counter. "You want to know what's bugging me?! Eve is comatose and God-knows-where, we can't find Wall-E and he's also God-knows-where too, and we still have no idea where to find a piece of your memories or any clue where to find Mother! THAT is what is bugging me!" She knocked a second cup from the counter. "And here we are just...RELAXING while this is going on!"

Minato stopped sipping on his cup for a second. "I see. Now tell me, how will simply panicking about it help us in any way?"

Amane sighed, not even bothering to open her mouth this time. "I just hate not doing anything when there's things we CAN do."

Minato closed both of his eyes, thinking. "Well, considering this place seems rather peaceful, I don't think Wall-E and Eve are in any immediate danger. We just have to stay calm and try not to panic."

"WARNING! Rogue robots!" went an alarm. Minato paused. He knew there was no such thing as coincidence.

_IT HAS ONLY BEEN FIVE MINUTES, WALL-E! WHAT THE HELL!?_

"OK. NOW we can panic." Amane summoned Gungnir before she pointed behind Minato.

"We have bigger worries." Standing behind them were several familiar darkness colored creatures. Then came the screams of terror. Minato slowly turned around, wondering if fate was taunting them even more-so. Of course it was. Leaping around the building, causing people to derail and swerve off their tracks were more and more creatures of darkness.

Minato's sweat dropped. "Yep. We can definitely panic now."

**Yet again, I am done! Two chapters in one day! Lucky me!...Sorry I got lazy there...I also gotta come clean about something...I tried to rip of Amane's character appearance from Horizon in the middle of Nowhere.  
**

**Amane was supposed to just about look like Futayo Honda...yeah...  
**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	9. Chapter 8: Mutiny

**Just gonna speed things up with this! Let us enjoy!**

**Before we get things underway, Y'ALL BETTER THANK Bboy46! This time he literally wrote this! He saved my ass yet again! If it wasn't for him, this story would've been on hiatus forever! **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except OC's.**

**Chapter 8: Mutiny**

Minato drew his sword to combat the Heartless in front of him. They were low-level Shadows, but they were spreading like wildfire. They were practically everywhere. Minato swung his sword at the first one that leaped at him and completely cut off its head, sending its body in a different direction.

Amane stabbed forward at another Heartless, releasing a wave of electricity that spread from one Heartless to the next. Even throughout the Heartless attacks, Minato could still hear the sirens screaming about Rogue Robots. On a passing by police-like robot, Minato could clearly see their images on the screen.

He truly was amazed how quickly that robot could get into trouble.

He didn't have as much time to think about it as he quickly spun around to cut in half another Shadow.

"Amane, we have to find the source of these Heartless!"

"Ya think!?" She shouted back. He couldn't blame her. She was under just as much stress considering she had twice as many enemies as he did. "First things first! We have to find Wall-E and Eve! They're in just as much danger as we are!"

"Right!" He cut apart another Heartless as they finally began to move on. As they made their ways through the halls, they couldn't help but notice dozens of what appeared to be police bots zooming past them, apparently searching for the 'rogue robots'. Funny how THAT is their priority when the whole ship's going to Hell. Of course they encountered more Heartless, but they seemed to ignore the machines passing them by.

"Minato, question!" Amane asked as they traversed the ship.

"Yeah?!"

"How come you're not using Persona?!"

"Ah, good-" He took the time to slice up another Heartless that got in his way. "-question." Minato sighed as they paused to catch their breaths. "Well, if I do summon Persona, I may very well destroy something important and kill us all in some resulting explosion. That answer your question?"

Amane nodded. Then a look of panic crossed her face. "Look out!" She pointed behind Minato to the leaping Heartless that he had neglected. Minato was certain he was dead until a strange blast of energy fried the Heartless.

Minato turned just in time to catch his savior. "Eve!?" Sure enough, the egg-shaped robot was hovering only a few feet away from the two humans.

"Minato!" came a high-pitched and squeaky voice behind her. Sure enough, Wall-E came rolling by as well.

"Wall-E!" Amane shouted. "You're both okay!" Despite the situation they currently landed in, it was good to see that both robots were safe...well, RELATIVELY safe.

But Eve's expression told him that things were getting serious. Despite that, he couldn't help but notice how much closer Eve and Wall-E seemed. But this was neither her nor there in this situations. Eve gestured to the compartment she had once kept Wall-E's plant in. "Directive."

Minato raised an eyebrow. "You mean the plant? What happened to it?"

"Stolen." was her answer.

"And that affects our situation how?" Eve didn't answer other than to glare shortly before flying past him.

"Eva!" Wall-E zoomed right after her, leaving Minato confused.

"What's the problem? I mean..."

Amane glared at Minato. "You don't understand. That plant could very well be the last hope their world has. If that plant vanishes, so do their chances of ever being able to return home." Minato rubbed the back of his neck, sighing.

"Just what did we get ourselves into?" Minato closed his eyes. "So any idea on where to start looking?"

That was when a slightly larger Heartless with a giant wheel for feet zoomed on by.

Amane stared dubiously. "My money's bet on that Heartless has it." Minato nodded.

"No doubt about it. Let's go, Amane!" Thus the two gave chase. Minato cut in half whatever Heartless that got in his way and Amane ran them through with her spear. It didn't take long for the two to catch up with the Wheelie Heartless (as Minato had dubbed him).

"Hold it right there!" Minato leaped at the Wheelie Heartless and swung his sword down. Just a moment before it made contact, the Heartless zipped right out of his range.

"Stay still!" Amane shouts trying to swing her spear. The Heartless somehow managed to crouch just enough to avoid certain destruction and kept on zooming by.

"Dammit! this thing is toying with us!" Minato shouts after another failed capture attempt rewarded him with a face plant into a wall.

"I have an idea, get it to turn around!" Amane said gripping her spear tightly.

Minato raised a brow at what his companion could possibly have in mind, but decided to put some trust in her. He immediately zoomed towards the Heartless, giving a quick jump off a wall, and placed himself right in front of the Heartless. Surprised, the Heartless came to a complete stop and proceeded to turn around.

"I've got you now you-" Minato tried to say before e was immediately cut off.

"Go! Gungnir!" Amane shouted and threw her spear at the Heartless. The spear traveled like a beam of light before impaling the Heartless and the floor right between Minato's legs. Amane smiled at her victory before going over to retrieve her spear, but was caught off guard at the frozen expression of shock Minato had plastered across his face. "Minato? Hello, we beat it!" Amane looked down and saw their prize. "We even have the plant!" She cried out, picking up said object.

Only then did Minato begin to speak. "Yeah, and all it took was you nearly killing me. No, even worse, you tried to take my manhood!" If Amane aimed her spear just a little too high... Minato didn't even want to visualize it.

Amane looked confused. "But I didn't, so what's the matter?"

Minato wanted to rage some more, but opted for a sigh together with pinching the bridge of his nose. "Never mind, just... never mind." Minato said before sighing again. "Come on, let's just get the stupid patch of green to the captain. After this I think I'll be ok with not seeing any machine besides the Gummi Ship for a long while."

Amane showed a hurt look for a second before it vanished and she nodded. "Yeah, let's go." The two began running down the corridor before stopping. "Err...Minato?"

"...yes Amane?"

"Do you have any idea _where_ we're supposed to bring the plant?"

"The captain? Maybe he or she can help get things under control."

"Good start I guess, but where do we find the captain?""

"...This will take a while won't it?"

"Sadly."

* * *

"I told you we should have gone left!"

"I'm sorry, but 'Crew's Quarters' should've implied that all people of the staff would be there! Maybe it should be changed to 'All Crew but the Captain's Quarters'!"

"Quit your whining! We're here now anyway!"

Minato and Amane stopped their fighting and instead returned their attention to the Captain's Quarters which they finally found (which totally took no time _at all_).

Minato, deciding to throw subtly out the window, kicked the door of the Captain's Quarters open, revealing... nobody, much to the bluenette's annoyance.

"Hey, what gives?!" Minato shouted, frustrated.

"... Control room?" Amane suggested.

Minato sighed.

_This will take a while. I hope nothing will happen to Wall-E and Eve before we find them._

* * *

After much arguing, getting lost, and defeating more heartless in the corridors of the ship (with Minato getting another drink from the cafeteria on the side), the two finally came to a room labeled _Axiom Control Room_.

"I swear, if he isn't in here..." Minato began darkly.

"Hold onto your threats before we look, why don't you?" Amane retorted before opening the door, revealing... something worse than nothing.

""Eve!"" Minato and Amane shout as they rush towards Eve. Wall-E was right next to her, laying on his side, apparently injured. Eve was completely ignoring Wall-E at the moment, but for good reason. She was completely focused on the horde of Heartless closing in on her and her fellow robot. Non-stop was she shooting her laser at the heartless, but the numbers didn't appear to be thinning out. Minato and Amane immediately rushed in and took out the approaching heartless. Finally able to rest with the immediate threats gone, Eve all but collapsed onto the floor.

"Eve! Are you alright?!" Amane shouted, help the robot up.

"D-directive?" Eve asked, granting Minato to raise an eyebrow.

_Even after all this, she's _still_ worried about the plant?!__ Have to give her points for dedication though._

"We've got it Eve, we got it." Amane said, showing the small piece of green life to the robot.

"Captain, complete directive." Eve said before she seemed to shut off, but upon closer look, she just went into a stasis.

"Evaaaa." A familiar voice says. Minato looks to see Wall-E recovered from whatever he was hit with. The robot placed a hand delicately on the other machine's. "Eva."

"Look after her, alright? We're almost through this." Minato said. Wall-E turned to him and gave a nod.

"Here, I think you know what to do with this." Amane said, giving Wall-E the plant. Wall-E placed it in some sort of chest compartment inside himself.

"Eve said we should get that to the Captain." Minato said before widening his eyes. "Oh yeah the Cap-" Minato turned to look for the captain and saw another obese human, but this one was on the floor only barely conscious. A wall of energy was barring anyone from reaching him.

"Guess that explains all those heartless." Amane said, readying her spear. "They must've been guarding him, and Eve tried to get to him to finish the mission."

"Well we'll do this part for her." Minato said, readying his sword before turning to Wall-E. "Get Eve and the plant out of here."

**"He will do no such thing!"** A voice shouted. The duo looked around searching for the source of the voice without finding anyone.

"Hey, come out!" Amane shouted.

**"You will treat me with respect young missy! I am controlling this ship, I demand as such!"** The voice said. You could quite literally HEAR the corruption in its voice.

"Wall-E, go, now!" Minato said. The robot shook in fear for a sec before grabbing Eve and zooming off.

**"Hold it right there defective!"** The voice said again.

"I don't think so!" Minato said, moving right in front of the doorway as Wall-E went on ahead. He felt a clang as his sword blocked something. He saw that it was another machine, but this one was shaped like a steering wheel with a red light in the center.

**"How dare you stop me! I am Auto! I control this ship!"** The robot yelled, moving back from Minato. That's when Minato noticed the streaks of darkness coming off of the wheel-shaped machine.

"Hey, Minato..." Amane began.

"Yeah, seems like this bot is the one commanding the heartless." Minato said.

**"I am exhausted of the numerous times I have had to deal with defective machines and rebellious elements.**" Auto said as more darkness surrounded him.** "I was the one who piloted the ship! 'Captain' is little more than a title! I have dedicated each and every part of my mechanical being to making sure this ship stays on its proper course, and I will continue. Doing. THAT!"** Auto yelled the last part as the darkness emitting from him solidified and shot out into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the ship. The dark tendrils pried open the panels as pits and pieces of machinery and metal was pulled and wrapped around the darkness, forming a makeshift, mechanical body. The bit of machinery attaching Auto to the ceiling broke as his body fell into the head-slot of the new, robotic body.

"I feel like this guy's the most defective of them all." Minato said under his breath as Amane nodded in agreement.

**"Silence!"** Auto cried out, his mechanical voice becoming slightly distorted. Bits of mechanical parts moved across the city of Auto's body, forming the iconic symbol of the heartless. **"I will purge this ship of all who stand against my orders. Next stop! The center of the nearest star! Estimated time of arrival, fifteen minutes!"**

"Shit." Minato said, gripping his sword tightly. "No time to think things through. Need to stop this runaway robot!"

**"Obey the Captain now!"** Auto said, moving his arms to crush Minato. Minato managed to dodge, but his sword wasn't able to do much damage against the hard exterior of the machine.

"Minato, move!" Amane shouted and Minato did just that. "Go Gungnir!" Amane said, aiming her spear right at the machine's center.

Auto moved his arm back, as if planning to stop the spear with a punch. "Forced Reassembly!" Auto shouted, as suddenly his arm fell apart. Actually, the tendrils of darkness inside his machine body separated the arm into pieces of machinery, with a large dark tendril still existing where the arm was. The darkness glowed purple as suddenly Auto moved his disassembled arm forward and the tendrils retracted, pulling the arm back together with a snap of black and purple energy and the fist met and beat down the spear.

"No way!" Amane shouted in surprise as she moved to retrieve her weapon.

"Look out!" Minato shouted as he tackled Amane out of the way as Auto's other arm came around to swipe her. Looking at the arm, Minato noticed that the arm ended up hitting one of the windows, causing a small crack to form. A smile appeared as an idea formed. "Hey, Ama-"

"Get off me you worm!" Amane shouted, pushing Minato off him. While she was glad Minato rescued her from being attacked doesn't mean she was OK with him staying over her more than necessary.

"Dammit Amane, I have an idea." Minato said, ticked off at his partner's response to him saving her life. "I need you to attack like you just did, but only when I give the signal and don't draw attention to yourself before then also, alright?"

Amane frowned, but nodded. "Alright."

Minato immediately moved in front of Auto. "Hey, servos-for-brains!" Minato said, trying to get a response from Auto.

**"Taunts do not work on me, miscreant."** Auto said.

"Hmph, well maybe that's why no one respects you. Far too stiff." Minato shrugged his shoulders.

**"How dare you! I have served as the auto-pilot of the Axiom for seven centuries, I am the reason everyone could live their lives!"** Auto said furiously.

"Auto-pilot, not captain." Minato said with a grin.

Auto seemed to lose it then and charged at Minato. Minato imitated the same thing, but he slid under the massive, machine body as he turned around to see Auto turn to look in surprise before crashing into the window behind him, leaving a nicely large crack.

"Amane, now!" Minato shouted, cuing his ally.

"Go Gungnir!" Amane shouted throwing her spear again.

**"You don't learn do you?"** Auto would've sneered if he had the facial parts to do so. **"Forced-"**

"Not this time!" Minato shouted as he suddenly appeared in front of Auto and threw his sword into the red center of Auto, piercing it and destroying whatever caused the red light.

Auto thrashed in what seemed like agony, forgetting about the incoming attack before it was too late. The spear hit Auto's shoulder, completely destroying it and the arm attached to the shoulder, allowing darkness to seep from the wound. This caused Auto to thrash even more as his other arm hit the glass window again, widening the crack.

"Time to end this." Minato said, as he ran towards Auto, intent on stopping the crazed machine. However, Auto's thrashing suddenly stopped as the robot removed his hand to reveal the red glow of his 'eye' despite how Minato's sword was still there.

**"ETA, one minute."** Auto said coldly as the shipped turned to reveal the Sun behind the cracked mirror. Surprised at how little time the two had left, Minato failed to see Auto's incoming leg coming to crush him before it was too late. Minato braced himself, but didn't feel anything. Looking, he saw much to his surprise that Amane was somehow stopping the leg's progress of reaching Minato.

_How is she that strong?!_

Minato didn't have much time to ponder as he noticed that Amane was being pushed back. Deciding to help, Minato leaned his shoulder into Amane and helped the spear user push Auto's leg back. Eventually the two managed to succeed as the leg went back and Auto fell against the window, causing cracks to appear nearly everywhere. Minato immediately seized the chance and jumped towards and onto Auto. With a strong landing, Minato caused the additional force to shatter the window, hurling both him and Auto out into space. Minato managed to grab his sword from Auto's body and stab it into the ship as the defeated machine yelled at him before vanishing into the Sun's rays.

_Maybe this wasn't such a good plan after all_. Minato thought as he felt his grip on the sword falter, tempting him to fall into the empty space behind him. His fingers finally gave way as he felt the air being sucked out push him away, but just as Minato thought that this was the end, he felt a tug and noticed Amane's panicked face staring right at him as she gripped his arm tightly. He felt himself be pulled in as Amane suddenly threw him inside.

"Do it!" She shouted. Minato didn't know who, but noticed that the reply came in the form of metal shutters closing the broken window.

"Must say, you were pretty crazy for doing that... but I guess Auto was even crazier." A male voice said. Minato looked to see that it was the obese man from before, but now he was standing up straight, a remarkable feat considering his body structure. "Hello there. I'm the Captain of this ship. Your little robot buddy proved that we could go home now. We'll be touching down in a minute or so. Can't wait to grow some pizza plants."

Minato ignored the last comment as he suddenly asked. "How is Wall-E?" Minato asked. He suddenly heard a thud as he looked through an undamaged window to see a small, white robot jump from the ship before touching down with a dirty box. Realization dawned on him as he turned towards Amane who nodded in return. The two immediately bolted for the exit which wasn't too hard to find because of how every person and machine was going that way.

"Move it!" Minato shouted as he struggled to get pass the bunches of flesh and metal. Finally getting to the front, he and Amane ran for Wall-E's shack to see a hole that wasn't there before. Slowing down at the entrance, Minato and Amane slowly entered. "Hello?"

"Eve? Wall-E?" Amane say quietly. They both hear a whirring sound and look to see Wall-E move out into the empty wasteland. Eve followed after him, trying to get his attention. Wall-E continued to remain oblivious to the other robot's actions as he simply continued compacting trash inside his chest.

"What could've happened?" Minato muttered. He couldn't help but notice the irony of how the two were acting. Eve was now the emotional one as Wall-E simply continued on his objective. It was almost heartbreaking. It probably was, but Minato simply had trouble feeling it.

Amane brought her hands to her face and Minato thought she was going to cry as Eve began to leave after giving Wall-E a kiss of sorts. Minato sighed, not sure which one of the three around him to feel more sorry for. That's when he saw Wall-E's hand suddenly grasp Eve's. Minato's eyes widened in surprise as Wall-E snapped out of whatever confusion he was under. Minato felt some sort of smile creep onto his face as he felt a tug on his sleeve. Minato turned to see Amane pulling him away.

"Let's give the two a moment." She said. Minato nodded, not wanting to intrude on the two, and left with Amane.

"What was up with that kiss?" Minato asked when the two were far enough away.

"What do you mean by that?" Amane asked. "A kiss could mean countless things, Eve's was one of sorrow, but the next was a happy one. Shouldn't you know this?"

Minato frowned at her question, but gave it some serious thought. He unconsciously brought his fingers to his lips as he thought of what gestures kisses he might've received were. However, every time he tried to think of something, a sudden stab of pain overtook him, making him stop trying to do so."

Amane looked at Minato's actions with confusion, wondering why Minato looked so hurt, but before she could ask, she saw something incredibly note-worthy. "Minato, look!" Amane said, and the two saw as a bunch of robots began pulling their ship out of the ground. It was amazing and also slightly amusing to watch considering how none of the robots were designed to dig or excavate.

Walking to the ship, Minato brushed some dirt off the top of the ship as he looked back at the desolated Earth.

_This place, this world, has the same name as my own. This much I'm certain of. However, I'm also certain that this is _not_ the world I came from. I guess in such a vast expanse of worlds filled with life never thought possibly before, it wouldn't be too hard for there to be two worlds out there with the same time and still end up completely different. There could even be more worlds out there, each called Earth, each with their own story to tell. Wonder if we'll find any more..._

The rest of the time Minato and Amane spent on the barren planet while waiting for their ship to be unearthed and repaired consisted of teaching the people of Axiom the proper methods of agriculture and convincing the Captain there was no such thing as a pizza plant, a cupcake tree, or a strawberry smoothie-bush. In the end, the duo gave final goodbye to Wall-E and Eve, who looked completely happy together, before getting into their ship.

As the brown planet got smaller and smaller behind them, Amane couldn't help but ask. "Do you think they'll be alright?"

Minato, focused on piloting, shrugged. "As long as the Captain knows what he can grow, I think they'll do fine."

"I meant Wall-E and Eve."

"...You saw how they were before they left. I'm sure they'll be perfectly fine, they do have each other." Minato said.

Amane said nothing for a while. "Do you really think it's possible? For a machine to love another machine?"

Minato sighed. "Amane, look at everything that's happening around you for one second and you'll realize that anything is possible. Or better yet, let go of logic and just go with the flow. That makes much less of a headache."

"I guess."

Minato sighed again. He honestly didn't know what to say. Amane was depressed for some reason and he didn't know why. Setting the ship to simply auto-pilot for a while he turned to face Amane. "Amane?"

"Yeah Minato?" Amane asks, glancing at Minato.

"I'm gonna say this only once, but you truly deserve it." Minato took a breath. "During the fight with Auto, when the window broke, I honestly thought I was going to die, but you saved me. Despite every argument and fight we had, you saved me. For that Amane, thank you. Thank you for saving my life."

Amane's face holds one of surprise as she doesn't say anything. Smiling slightly at the look on her face, Minato takes manual control of the ship again as he flew off, looking for another world that his friends might be on. He didn't notice how Amane's surprise melted away as a warm smile replaced it on her face as she stared at Minato for a while. Somehow the bond between them had grown. Not enough that they would stop quarreling, but it was something

Minato only paid attention the sound of shattering glass.

_The Magician Arcana. The power to act and take initiative._

**Done! If you got problems with this, then oh well. At least it's something. And we are done for now. I hope you will all wait patiently for the next chapter and I swear I shall never attempt to do a non-canon world ever again. Cos this was just terrible.**** If it wasn't for BBoy, this would've crashed and burned.  
**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews!**

**Bye-Bye!**


	10. Chapter 9: Weapon Shopping

**Time for the next chapter of Shattered Persona! Just ignore any irregularities in the previous chapter and go with the flow! GO WITH IT!  
**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except OC's.**

**Chapter 9:**

**Weapon Shopping  
**

"So where to now?"

Minato leaned back in his pilot seat as he stared at the room of the ship's interior. There had been an odd peace between the two of the ship's occupants since they had pretty much saved an entire world.

Amane thought about it. "Well, did that last trip jog any memories?" Minato nodded.

He remembered the guy who tried being in a relationship with a teacher, Kenji Tomochika. He hadn't really been that bad of a guy really. A bit of an idiot for going after a girl in her twenties to early thirties when he was only sixteen, but a good guy nonetheless.

"But it's not really pertinent to either of our objectives."

"I see." After that, there was a long silence between the two as Minato piloted the ship aimlessly around this space.

"Amane, there's something I've been meaning to ask you. What was with that inhuman strength you showed back when we were fighting Auto?" It was mind-boggling. She stopped Auto's attack with nothing but her bare hands.

Amane gave a shrug. "Don't know. For as long as I remember, I've just always had it."

"Ah." And then they faded back into silence. Both of them clearly wished that someone would say something irritating to start a fight. This awkward silence they fell into was disturbing.

"My turn to ask you a question." Amane decided. "Where do you keep your sword when you're not using it? The only places I can think off sound either illogical or just painful."

While Minato felt tempted to ask exactly where she thought he hid his sword, he felt a little nauseous when he thought about the answer. So he decided not to ask. Minato stood up from his chair after setting the ship to autopilot.

He walked into the middle of the room that made up the cockpit and held out his hand. "Well I usually keep it in this pocket dimension I have. I don't quite know how I created it, but I can keep weapons in it or summon weapons from it. I just think it and it happens." Minato tightened his hand as if he was grasping the hilt of a sword. "Like so!"

Minato closed his eyes and seemed to focus. There was nothing but silence for five seconds before he opened his eyes with a confused expression on his face. "Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

Minato blinked twice before turning to his fellow blunette. "For some reason I'm having trouble calling out my sword."

Amane raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I thought it was as simple as thinking about it?"

Minato threw his fist forward. "Yeah, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm gonna have to get it manually." Rather than hitting air, Amane was surprised to see Minato's fist pass through some unseen veil, no doubt to the pocket dimension he had been talking about. He gave it a good yank but whatever his hand was grabbing wouldn't budge. "It's in there but something's definitely wrong." Minato grabbed his arm with his other hand and renewed his assault on the force holding his sword in the pocket dimension.

Amane sighed as she rose from her seat. "Let me help." She grabbed Minato's arm and pulled with all of her might.

Minato cringed in pain. "Hey, watch it! You're gonna break my arm if you pull it like that!"

"Well you won't be able to get that sword out with your minute strength is nowhere near enough to pull this thing out." Minato's eye twitched.

"What?" His face kept on twitching from irritation. "If I didn't know any better, I could've sworn you were calling me a weakling, you freaky, muscle girl." Amane paused.

"What did you say, **_worm_?**" she asked with a warning tone in her voice.

"Oh, did I stutter?" And just like that, the peace was shattered. "I called you a freaky, muscle girl." He then turned his attention towards the small space his hand was sticking into. "Although maybe you're not as strong as I thought if you can't even help me pull out a single sword." Minato almost smiled a little at his small psychological toying.

"How dare you question my power, worm!?" With a final angry yank, Amane pulled Minato's arm back out of the pocket dimension along with the sword it was grasping, using too much strength and throwing Minato against the back wall.

"Ow."

Amane breathed in deeply before exhaling. She repeated this several times before the amount of killing intent in the room began to fade away. She then turned her steely gaze towards Minato's form.

"It's out."

Minato sighed before getting back to his feet, his sword in his hand. "Yeah. Next time I hope it doesn't take almost tearing my arm off to summon it out." He then brushed himself off with his other hand.

"Why was it being so stubborn anyway?"

"Don't know." Minato held up his sword so it was visible to both of their eyes. In several areas there were clear signs of wear and cracks branched out across most of the edges of the sword. "Maybe I'm just getting out of practice."

Amane's sweat dropped. "Or it could have to do with the fact that your sword is ready to fall apart at any minute."

"Are you kidding? This sword is in the best shape of its life." Minato swung his sword, slashing through the air. He swung again and again, trying to prove his point.

"Worm, I have seen twigs that looked more sturdy than that." As if to prove Amane's point, another crack broke out on Minato's sword.

"I'm telling you it's fine." Minato pointed the sword at her. "Behold." Minato then spun around, bringing the sword across to strike his chair in an attempt to cut it in half. Minato swung it with all of his might...but the sword didn't cut through the chair.

No. It stopped right as it made impact with the chair. It hit, but it didn't cut through. Minato blinked.

"Is the blade that dull?" Minato held up the sword to his face and examined it curiously. Then as if by some unknown signal, the cracks on the blade began to spread and cover the entire blade. There was a sharp cracking noise before the blade completely shattered into a million pieces. He just stared, mouth wide open as every last scrap of metal clattered onto the ground.

Amane gained a smug expression. "What's in the best shape of its life now?" Minato looked at the hilt of his sword with a growing sense of curiosity.

"Well that's never really happened before." While he didn't quite know if he ever held a real sword before, Minato was certain that he had never actually seen a blade completely crack and break into a few million pieces before. "Maybe this sword wasn't meant for infinite use."

"Whatever the case, we won't survive long on our journey even if you have your Persona power if you don't have a proper weapon." Amane shook her head. "Great. We have to go all the way back to Traverse Town just because you can't take care of your toys, worm."

"So it's my fault that this blade was a piece of crap made by a good-for-nothing blacksmith?!"

* * *

Back in Traverse Town, the local blacksmith gained the strange feeling someone had just insulted his life's work.

* * *

"It's your fault for neglecting to take care of your weapon." Amane suddenly summoned Gungnir into both of her hands. "You have to treat your weapon like you'd treat your baby. Out in the stars, your weapon is your life, got it?" She then began nuzzling the shaft of her spear. "Isn't that right, Gun-kun~? Who's a good boy~? Who's a good boy~? You're a good boy~!"

Minato took a step back, suddenly concerned for his comrade's sanity. "I see..." He then looked back at the remains of his sword before sighing. "It appears I really have no choice but to go back and get a new sword. Maybe Leon will know a place to get a blade with a much higher quality." He then made his way back to the pilot's seat. "Buckle up because we're about to get this show on the road."

Amane pouted slightly while petting Gungnir once more before returning it to her own personal pocket dimension. While Minato assumed she could make it appear and vanish because it was some sort of magic weapon, Amane was confused as to why he too could send weapons to his own personal pocket dimension.

She returned to her seat and then buckled her seat belt as the rocket took off full speed ahead.

Traverse Town, here we come...again.

* * *

It took a few hours, but it seemed to take less time GETTING to Traverse Town than it took leaving it.

Minato looked around the First District as he and Amane made their way through, looking for any familiar face.

"Now I just gotta find that weapon shop, buy a weapon, and get the Hell outta here before I have to deal with that pain in the ass ninja." Minato scanned the area before sighing again.

"Oh?" Amane mused. "Here I was thinking that you and ninja girl were friends."

Minato scratched the back of his head. "Don't get me wrong. I consider her her a friend _somewhat_, but that doesn't keep me from finding her-"

"HEY, MINATO!" came an unfortunately familiar voice. Minato's expression fell.

"-annoying." They both turned to see the overenergetic ninja girl, Yuffie, running towards them, waving like a maniac.

"Hey, Yuffie." Minato gave a lazy wave back while Amane gave her own little wave.

"Hey there, Tiny."

Yuffie stopped in front of them, a smile on her face. "So what brings you guys back here so soon?" Minato groaned a little as he brought out his sword hilt.

"Well I-"

"WHO DID YOU JUST CALL TINY!? Yuffie suddenly shouted. Both Minato and Amane sweat dropped.

_Whoa. Talk about a late reaction._

"I'M STILL BUDDING! MARK MY WORDS! YOU'LL FEEL LIKE THE GIGANTIC ASS YOU ARE WHEN MY CHEST IS BIGGER THAN THOSE GODDAMN MELONS ON YOUR TORSO!" She continued ranting on like that for a good thirty minutes. Since most of it was directed towards Amane, Minato decided to take an interest in the surrounding area.

Other than the bustle of civilians going about their everyday, not paying Yuffie a second look (perhaps knowing her personality well enough to be used to her ruckus), there wasn't anything of note. Minato quickly found himself bored and wishing he still had his MP3 player, but that was sucked up along with the rest of his island by the darkness.

Once Yuffie had calmed down, Minato was finally able to explain the reasoning for their return.

"So you broke your sword, huh?" Minato nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah. Considering this is the only place I know of that casually sells weapons without a license and avoids getting the shop shutdown probably because of corrupt law enforcement, it was really the only choice."

"Jeez. When you say it like that, you make this town sound like some kind of criminal underground." Yuffie rubbed the back of her neck tiredly. "Anyway, the weapon you got was from that unskilled blacksmith stationed near the town square. You want a good sword you should try the weapon shop in the Third District." Yuffie gestured towards the huge door right across from them.

"Why that shop in particular?" Amane asked, finally having regained the ability to hear after being deafened by Yuffie's rant.

"Well they are the only ones who make quality weapons. Not that worthless garbage like what you bought from that good-for-nothing blacksmith."

* * *

Elsewhere, the local blacksmith suddenly felt the strange urge to cry.

* * *

"Anyway, just drop my name at the Sasha's Weaponry. I get new 'toys' there all the time so I'm buddies with the nice lady running the place." Yuffie gave a thumbs up. "Just mention my name and you might even get a discount. Sasha's cool like that."

Minato thought about the ninja girl's words before staring towards the giant door. "But isn't the Third District a pretty weird place to set up shop?" While Minato had spent a rather small amount of time in Traverse Town, he recalled a discussion with Leon regarding the levels of danger each area of Traverse Town possesses.

The First District, the area in which their little group stood, is the place where most commerce takes place due to the fact that Heartless rarely ever showed up. It was something of a little safe spot in that town.

The Second District wasn't as nice. There is a much higher chance of encountering Heartless there than in the First District. Although it's usually only low level Heartless, it's not a bright idea to stay out in the open around there. That's why the hotels there were equipped with a magic barrier made by some old wizard guy. They were a good place to stay to either recuperate or just to catch your breath before trying to make a break for it...but last Minato heard, the barriers were starting to break down since the wizard had business he had to take care of, so maintenance on the barrier was near impossible. So it was a bit of a risk going there.

The Third District was definitely the most dangerous out of all three districts. It was pretty much certain death to any who were stupid enough to take a step on that ground without a weapon or any kind of magical skill. Not only does that area have the highest possible chances of Heartless appearances, but it usually had the most dangerous Heartless. Suffice to say, no sane businessman/woman would set up a shop in that place if they actually WANTED customers. This brought the thought: Was it a question of sanity or power? If this Sasha lady managed to survive in that area and even attempt to run a business...guess she wouldn't be selling those weapons if she didn't know how to use them.

Yuffie shrugged. "Well if you want quality weapons, that's the only real place to go."

"Would our small-chested comrade care to accompany us?" Amane asked. " I mean, how do we even know where to find this place?"

"It's not hard to find. She has one of those big, light up signs above the door." Yuffie explained. "Besides," Yuffie's expression became one of intense fear, "she tends to scare the crap out of me...so good luck with that." She then turned around and began to walk away casually only to appear to be shaking.

Minato stared through half-lidded eyes. "Well that's reassuring."

"Shall we go see if our supposedly scary blacksmith?"

The party of two then made their way through the big door to the Third District to replace Minato's shattered sword.

"WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY CHEST!?" But they were already through the door.

* * *

Sure enough, just as Yuffie had said, there it was. The sign above the building read 'Sasha's Weaponry' in giant, red lights.

"I guess this is the place." Minato pointed out. Neither made a step forward. "How tough do you think the owner is? What does she even look like?"

Amane then began to make gestures with her arms. "I'd say she's about seven feet tall and has the gigantic muscles of a person who works on a forge everyday." She then made devil horns on her head. "And I bet she also has sharp claws and is really part demon."

"Hey, maybe you're related." Minato interrupted. Amane blinked once before glaring at Minato.

"What did you just say?" Amane growled through her teeth.

Minato, however, chose to ignore the potential fight, instead, moving his feet toward the door. "Who me?" He asked innocently. "I have no idea what you me-MMPH!" His sentence was cut short as his face was suddenly met by the bad end of the front door which had decided at that moment to shoot open. Minato backed away, rubbing his nose and checking if it was broken. He looked up just in time to see a humanoid shape being tossed right out through the doors.

Minato watched with only mildly amused eyes as the man tried getting to his feet.

He was about seventeen or eighteen with spiky silver (Yes. SILVER.) hair and dark-blue eyes. He wore what appeared to be a student uniform except it had some sort of bow and arrow design on the back of the black jacket which was unzipped to reveal a dark-red shirt underneath it. There was a silver chain sticking out of the guy's pocket. It was only at that moment that Minato realized it was a rip-off and that the teen in front of him was one of those people who thought that a student uniform made him look like a badass delinquent...and failing spectacularly.

"W-Who do ya think you are doing t-this to m-me?!" He shouted outraged. "W-When the b-boss finds out, he ain't gonna b-be to happy with ya! T-Then you'll be regrettin-EEP!" He smartly ducked out of the way as a dagger flew right over his head. He scrambled out of the way and started running as fast as his legs could carry him. "BOOOOOOSS! HELP MEEEEEEE!"

_And here I was thinking he couldn't seem any lamer,_ Minato thought, sweat dropped. He then carefully looked around the door to see what kind of woman could easily throw a knife at a guy with such precision. It had happened in a second, but Minato could tell she missed on purpose.

He looked all the way to the back but was unable to see the person sitting behind the store counter because they held a newspaper in front of their face. There was no sign that anybody had been pissed off enough to chuck a knife at some stranger's head.

Amane shot Minato an uncertain glance. "So shall we go in?" Minato nodded and the two then carefully made their way inside the store. For a weapon shop, it was rather nice and neat, weapons hanging by hooks, shelves, etc etc on the walls. Shields, swords, spears, hammers, even a SCYTHE could be found. Name any weapon and this shop had it.

As they continued inward, Minato couldn't help but notice Amane growing more and more tense. Perhaps this was fear.

Course if he said as such she would probably just punch him.

The two then made their way to the counter.

The person behind the counter forcefully closed their paper and Minato could see their hand reach for a knives. "I told you I'm not selling to you damn-!" Her hand made it halfway around to their throats, just stopping at Minato's. "Oh." She said as if she HADN'T been about to slit Minato's throat. "Different guy."

"No kidding." was Minato's reply. He didn't want to say anything too sarcastic for fear the fearsome woman behind the counter decided to finish the job.

For it was indeed a woman behind the counter. She was in her mid to late twenties. She had shoulder-length, light-blue hair (Oh goodie. Another bluenette.) tied in a pony tail behind her head with bangs hanging in front of her face and she also had light-green eyes. She had flawless, pale skin except for a single bandage on her left cheek. She wore a black overcoat that was open to reveal a long-sleeved red shirt and blue jean pants.

She gave a half-assed peace sign and an almost sleepy smile. "So welcome to Sasha's Weaponry." She didn't seem to bat an eye at the fact that Minato was technically too young to carry ANY type of arms let alone a steel blade. "In case you haven't figured it out, I'm Sasha, the lady who owns the place. What can I get you?"

She had spoken so casually that both Minato and Amane were taken aback. Minato gestured back to the doorway.

"Who was that guy?

Sasha's tired smile turned into a frown. "Someone who's no longer welcome in my shop, that's who." She then began muttering to herself. Minato couldn't quite hear her, but he could make out some words and phrases such as "Blasted Hunters..." and "...wouldn't know a sword if it was planted halfway up their ass...". While Minato was curious by what she meant about 'Hunters', he chose to let it go for now. He had had a different purpose for coming to the shop anyway.

Minato summoned his hilt and showed it to Sasha. "Well this sword kinda broke-long story-and I need a new one."

Sasha reached out for what used to be a sword, Minato relinquishing it to her. She examined each and every last inch of the hilt as if it in itself was a blade. "Shoddy craftsmanship. Judging from the wear, this blade has seen some serious combat. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did." She then tossed it without a care behind her. "I take it you've seen more battles than the average man, eh?"

Amane walked over the counter calmly. "This idiot broke his sword. Can you get him a new one or what? Even the least skilled of blacksmiths should be able to do something like that." Rather than aim a knife at Amane's throat like Minato expected for the insult, Sasha broke out into laughter.

"HAHAHA! I like the moxie of this one right here! HAHAHAHA!" She then reached over the counter and patted Minato on the shoulder. "A fine girl you got there! She must be one helluva hassle in the bedroom!" She then continued with her laughter.

Minato noticed Amane turning a bright-red color, letting out a high-pitched squeaking sound while he raised an eyebrow.

"Bedroom?" He wasn't quite sure what sleeping arrangements had to do with anything. He and Amane didn't even share a room.

Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Ah. So you haven't done the dirty deed yet then?" Before Minato could ask what Sasha was talking about, Amane leaped forward and clamped one hand over his mouth.

"W-We're not even like that! Even if he was the last human being in the entire UNIVERSE I wouldn't even CONSIDER doing something like THAT with HIM!" Minato then noticed an aura of pure killing intent radiating off of Amane's body. "**You got that?!**"

Sasha raised her hands in surrender, her amused smile telling everyone that she was done having fun. She wasn't a bad person really. Other than that previous display of violence against that stranger, Sasha was a fairly pleasant person. But Minato could sense this aura coming off her that clearly stated "Be good and we'll be best friends...but cross me and you die." Even when Amane had been talking back to her, the only reason she hadn't taken offense was because she hadn't know the two teens for very long and probably figured that Amane was just embarrassed like she was.

"Alright. Alright. So may I ask why you need a weapon in the first place? With Leon an' crew, the town is safe enough. What reason would you need for it? I want to be sure that my work isn't being used for the wrong purposes."

Minato clenched his fists at his sides. "I have to find my friends. I won't survive without a weapon. But even if you refuse to help me, I'll fight without a blade. I'll do whatever it takes to find them." He kept a completely straight face, but one could easily see he was being honest about every last one of his words.

Sasha rubbed her chin, apparently thinking about something. "So you're not from here are ya?" She then seemed to stare into space, as if reminiscing about something. "I'm impressed by your resolve." Sasha then stood up straight and placed her hands on her hips. "Alrighty then! If you're serious about fighting off-world, then I'll supply you with whatever weapons you need (for a price of course)!"

Minato resisted the urge to make a show of emptying his already empty pockets. True Heartless dropped munny, but what idiot would pick up munny dropped by a supernatural being of darkness? It would probably be cursed or some BS like that. "I don't have any munny." He wasn't even sure why he went to the weapon shop in the first place. It wasn't like Sasha was just going to give him a weapon for free.

"Tell you what. First blade's free!"

_Eh?_ was Minato's first reaction. He then said his thought aloud. "Eh?!"

Sasha stood grinning with her arms crossed in front of her chest. "It's my policy. The first blade is always free."

Amane raised an eyebrow, confused. "Then how do you make money?" Sasha waved her question off.

"You just leave me to worry about that." She then turned back to Minato. "So what kind of blade were you looking for?"

Minato placed a finger on his chin as he thought about it. "Well I'm not too picky, but I'd have to say a one-handed sword preferably. Something that is well-balanced."

Sasha nodded with a smile. "I think I got just the thing you're looking for." Sasha then crouched down and appeared to be looking for something behind the counter. She could occasionally be heard muttering "No no. Not that one." or "Hmm...maybe...". Eventually she appeared once more, standing up straight holding a long and slightly curved sword in her hands. "Shortswords are out of stock, but this katana should do quite well." She threw it softly to Minato who caught it with one hand.

Minato drew the sword an inch out of its sheathe as he examined the blade. His reflection's eyes met his own as Minato looked at the clean and beautiful surface. It was ten times better when compared to his previous sword. While he wouldn't be getting used to being confined to using one side of the blade easily, he would just have to learn.

"Tell Yuffie that I put this one on the house."

"Yeah tha-" Minato paused. "How did you know Yuffie sent us here?"

Sasha smirked. "Yuffie isn't hard to read. If it's someone with YOUR looks, there's no way she wouldn't help you out."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Oh innocent, spunky, and good looking. No doubt in my mind now that Yuffie's smitten with you." Minato cocked his head to the side.

"Eh? I am not familiar with the term 'smitten'. What does it mean?" Rather than answer, Sasha just started snickering. Minato blinked before turning to Amane. "Well can YOU tell me what it means?" Amane didn't answer. Minato noticed an oddly annoyed and embarrassed expression on her face. "What?"

Amane then grabbed Minato by the collar and began dragging him outside. "Thanks for the free sword." She muttered. "Goodbye."

Sasha waved the two teens goodbye. "Drop by anytime you got cash and need another blade."

Once the two were out of sight, she pulled a cigar and a lighter out of her pocket and lit up. Sasha took one huff of the cigar before blowing a puff of smoke outward. "That kid...there's certainly something special about him. Even though it's faint and somewhat shattered, I can still see that fire in your eyes..." She took another huff before exhaling again. "I can't wait to see what ruckus YOU cause, kid."

* * *

_Later..._

"Why are we on top of the bell tower?" Amane asked. Minato looked around the boarded off path way that led to the giant town bell, as if looking for something.

"Cos Leon said that there were some Heartless bugging people in the area. He said they usually pop up around here." Minato scratched his head. "I need to break in this new katana so we may as well." He then tensed slightly. "Speaking of the Devil."

Several Green Requiems, Yellow Operas, Blue Rhapsodies, and Red Nocturnes suddenly appeared out of thin air. They shook warningly, allowing Minato and Amane to ready their weapons.

"I got dibs on blues and yellows." Minato stated firmly.

"Eff you! I want the blues!" Amane shouted. Minato raised an eyebrow. "I want the blues. I find the blue ones cute."

Minato stared at her through half-lidded eyes. "So you think they're cute...so you want to be the one to kill them?"

"You wouldn't understand since you're a boy!"

Minato face-palmed. "What does that even-! Are we really having this conversation right now? Wanna know what? Forget it. Fine. You can kill the Rhapsodies. I'll take the Nocturnes then."

"Hai!" Amane readied her spear. "Gungnir!" The tip began to crackle with electricity. "Electric Arc!" Amane then pointed her spear into the air and fired off a large bolt of electricity that vanished upon making contact with the roof of the bell tower. Several of the Rhapsodies and Requiems, causing them to explode into shadowy mist.

Minato quickly drew his brand new katana, not wanting to be outdone by his fellow bluenette. One of the Nocturnes wrapped its body in a cloak of flames and charged. Minato stopped, putting all of the momentum of his charge into swinging his blade. The blade made contact with the Nocturne's side shortly before it dissolved. Several others charged up balls of fire while the Operas readied their lightning. Minato, not being weighed down by a much heavier sword, was easily able to zip past each of the initial strikes and take out several of each Heartless type.

The battle went by surprisingly fast.

"What type is that one?" Minato asked. They looked up in the air above them to see a rather irregular looking Heartless. It looked just like the magic-using Heartless from before except its body was more of a gold color than anything.

"Is it a rare species of Heartless?"

Minato thought it over before shrugging and then pointing his sword at the new Heartless. "Doesn't matter. It goes down either way."

"Right!"

The Heartless didn't stand a chance. Whatever element is possessed. Whatever power it exuded. It was quickly put down by two of the most powerful bluenettes in all of history.

If only the battle ended there.

Minato wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead.

"Gettin tired, worm?" Amane taunted.

Minato sighed. "I'm only getting started. No way I'd get exhausted fighting those small fry." He then looked at his open hand.

_I didn't even have to use Persona to beat them. Am I getting stronger?_

It was certainly a good sign. With everything that's going on, getting stronger meant there was a higher chance of being able to handle whatever is out there.

Amane took the opportunity to survey their surroundings. "Well it looks like they're all taken care of. We should report back to Leon and finally get back on with our journey." Minato nodded.

"I think I got the hang of this katana faster than I thought I would. Apparently I'm not too picky about swords."

_"Then how about this one!?"_

Minato had enough reflex to duck just as something long and metallic flew over his head. He quickly spun while crouched and delivered a kick that knocked his attacker's legs out from under him. The attacker quickly recovered, stopping their fall by slamming their hand onto the ground midair and push himself backwards onto his feet.

"Bastard!" The man shouted in a rather cliche manner.

"Oh?" Minato raised an eyebrow. "So _I_ am the one who attacked a guy completely unprovoked?" His eyes then widened once he got a good look at the man who attacked him. "You again?"

He was about seventeen or eighteen with spiky silver hair and dark-blue eyes. He wore what appeared to be a student uniform except it had some sort of bow and arrow design on the back of the black jacket which was unzipped to reveal a dark-red shirt underneath it. There was a silver chain sticking out of the guy's pocket. It was only at that moment that Minato realized it was a rip-off and that the teen in front of him was one of those people who thought that a student uniform made him look like a badass delinquent...and failing spectacularly...AGAIN. Only this time he held a longsword in his hand.

The older teen blinked. "Do I know you?" Minato rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well you kinda literally slammed the door of the weapon shop in my face." He then thought about it. "And that's about it other than the fact that you tried to kill me for no apparent reason."

The silver-haired teen sneered. "It's your own fault for getting in my way!"

Suddenly Minato felt rather irritated. "Pardon me?"

"You had no right to take my Mark!?"

"Mark?" Amane questioned. The silver-haired boy blinked as if he just noticed Amane's presence. He then smiled brightly. He quickly slicked back his hair and radiated an aura that was a mix of confidence and arrogance.

"Hey, sweetheart, what say you ditch that other blue-haired emo and come hang with a real man?"

Both bluenettes blinked twice at the proposal.

"What?"

"Emo?" Minato muttered, confused.

"My name's Sen. So what do you say, sweetheart?" Sen asked smoothly.

"Drop dead." Amane seemed actually irritated at his proposal. Sen almost fell back as if he had been hit by a frying pan. He then straightened himself with a slightly annoyed look. He seemed to notice this and quickly changed back to his smooth expression.

"Oh do be that way~! Don't be breakin my heart~!"

"Try to hit on me again and I might break something else." Minato stepped away from Amane who seemed to be radiating fire.

"You know you OWE ME for taking my Mark. You HAVE TO repay me somehow." Sen stated darkly. His looked Amane up and down with a gaze that seemed rather unclean. There was no doubt what was going through his mind, but he seemed more uncertain about what he was thinking for some reason. "I have the perfect idea..."

Amane was about to no doubt spear the cocky dumbass when Minato stepped in front of her.

"I believe her answer was 'Drop dead'. Of course she did also say 'Try to hit on me again and I might break something else', but I'm sure that both answers meant 'No'."

"Mind your own business, emo!" Sen shouted angrily. Minato cocked his head to the side.

"I'm sorry, my name is NOT Emo. It's Minato. Minato Arisato." Minato then drew his katana. "And I still have to pay you back for trying to kill me a moment ago."

Sen glared at Minato. "Fine. I suppose I should punish you for taking my Mark, Blueberry!"

_Well that's a new one._ Minato thought, sweat dropped. Out loud, he said, "What IS a Mark, anyway?"

Sen clicked his tongue. "Of course you wouldn't know. Marks are the targets that we of the United Hunters Association are paid to capture or kill. They are somewhat like bounties that are placed on a person or creature's head. Ever since the walls between the worlds have come down, we Hunters have been in very high demand to take down creatures or people who have been bothering somebody. That's why the Hunter's Association was formed to hunt down targets. It's made up of powerful fighters who know their way around a sword or other various weaponry. The big, golden Heartless you killed was the Mark I came all the way here to kill." He then stepped back at the surprised expressions on their faces. "What's with those looks!?"

Minato blinked in surprise. "Well, it's just...we never really expected you to answer our questions anyway."

"Yeah." Amane agreed. "You even explained about that Hunter's Association thing you were talking about...uh...thanks?"

Sen's cheeks seemed to pink slightly before he turned away awkwardly. "D-Don't mention it. I mean it was a fair question, bu-WAIT A MINUTE! Are we fighting or not?!"

Minato scratched his head as he and Amane raised their weapons uncertainly. ""I guess.""

"Good." Sen grinned. "Then let me show you what I got." He grabbed the hilt of his longsword, putting all of his strength in one might swing. Both bluenettes leaped backwards as some sort of force was released from the strike, creating miniature fissures as the strike carved its way through the ground.

Amane quickly charged her spear with electricity. "Gungnir! Thunder Arc!" She pointed her spear upwards as it discharged the electrical energy it stored. Lightning rained down all around Sen who calmly raised his longsword into the air. It was only then that Minato got a good look at it.

It was a rather large sword, almost qualifying as a broadsword, with a semicircular guard on the left side of the handle that extended to the bottom just above the pommel, with a small extension on the right side of the handle. The blade was red with gold edges.

Just as the lightning was about to strike Sen down, it seemed to halt as if there was some sort of magical bubble around him. The lightning than began to wrap around Sen's blade and gradually vanish, leaving nothing but a bit of smoke where it had once struck. Sen seemed to smirk when Amane's jaw dropped, as if he expected that to happen.

"This is my sword, Mana Breaker." Sen stated confidently. He then closed his eyes and focused. Minato's eyes widened as electricity began to crackle as it coursed through the blade of Mana Breaker. "My blade possesses the ability to dispel most any enchantment and absorb any magic spell and redirect it. Like so." Sen pointed his sword at the two. A bright light appeared at the tip of the blade. Minato and Amane instinctively leaped to the side out of the way as a gigantic blast of electric energy burst from Sen's sword and fire right past them.

It didn't just stop. It continued flying forward, before exploding into the side of a nearby building.

The two then turned back to Sen who held his sword, ready to fight. "I should properly introduce myself. I am Hunter No. 11, Sen the Spell Breaker...and apparently you are my new Mark."

**With over 6500 words, I am done! I had hoped to get that fight done, but this chapter is starting to drag on for too long. So anywho~!  
**

**Sasha seems like a mysterious person deep down, Sen is no doubt a pervert, and Minato has a new sword. Stay tuned for the next chapter hopefully somewhere in the next few days...It sucks how Spring Break is over. I hate school SOOOOOOOO much.**

**Oh yeah...I figure I might as well do this right here:**

**OK so since I'm creating this whole United Hunters Association organization for the role of major antagonists in Shattered Persona, I could use OC's that you guys might want to send in. Note: Just because you send them in doesn't mean they will automatically get into the story. If they do, they may be small fry who exist just to get beat up without any real mention. **

**Here is the format for Hunters:**

**Name (it can be one name or a full name):**

**Age:**

**Gender:**

**Appearance:**

**Personality:**

**History (optional. They don't really need one):**

**Choice of weapon (Ex: Sword, spear, magic, etc):**

******Special ability of weapon or spell (like does it have some sort of effect? If it's a spell, it can be a custom-made one):**

**Rank (what is their rank between 1 and so on, 1 being the strongest):**

**That is about all. I will post the format on my profile page for those of you who prefer to copy and paste.  
**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews~!**

**Bye-Bye~!**


	11. Chapter 10: The Hunters In Action

**It's time to continue where we left off! I hope y'all enjoy! Oh yeah. What would you all say to me doing a Highschool DxD fic? Do you think I could pull it off? AND...nope. I think that's about it. I had really been hoping that I'd have something to say but for the life of me I can't think of any subject. Well, I'm still accepting those OC's for the United Hunters Association.  
**

**And let me state for the record: BOTH AMANE AND SEN ARE OC'S! Amane has a connection to someone from Minato's past while Sen is an OC I'm using to introduce new antagonists to Minato's story. I always felt it was a little strange how only Sora's group, villains, and Final Fantasy characters were the only ones who knew of and were able to travel to other worlds.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except MY OWN OC's.**

**Chapter 10:**

**Blue vs. Silver, The Hunters In Action  
**

"I am the 11th Hunter, Sen the Spell Breaker!" Sen readied Mana Breaker to strike. "And you are my new Mark!"

Taking initiative, Minato charged forward. Sen swung his blade at Minato's side, but Minato crouched forward, ducking under the swing. Minato brought his elbow forward, slamming it into Sen's stomach. With a groan, Sen skidded backwards.

Minato continued his charge and swung his blade, only to be blocked by Sen's Mana Breaker.

"Oh ho! You're a bit more skilled than I thought you'd be." Sen pushed forward, shoving Minato back. He raised his blade above his head just in time to block the blade of Amane's spear. While Sen had been busy with Minato, Amane had leaped into the air to get a stab at Sen. "Not bad, my beauty, but you're gonna have to try something original if you want to beat me."

Amane spun her spear around in another attempt to hit Sen only for Sen to swing his blade in a high arc over his head. Amane held out Gungnir to block the blow. Amane was send flying and then sliding across the ground, almost slipping over the edge of the platform.

Sen swung his sword sideways, releasing a magical shockwave that knocked Minato off-balance. Sen took this opportunity to charge. The two then started to exchange blows. Every time Minato swung, Sen swung to match his strike. Their blades danced with another. Minato felt himself being pushed back. When Sen swung with a slightly larger amount of power, Minato leaped to the right, causing Sen's blade to imbed itself into a nearby stone pillar.

Sen placed his foot on the pillar as he began to pull his blade out of the stone. He jumped right just as Amane jabbed forward with her spear. Sen gave a final yank as the blade of the electrically charged spear. Gungnir's spearhead made contact with the flat of the blade as the stored electricity was absorbed by Mana Breaker.

"I told you. That's not gonna w-"

"Orpheus! Agi!"

Sen immediately disengaged from Amane just in time as a small ball of fire exploded at the position he was recently standing in.

Amane turned to see Minato entirely enveloped in the magical blue aura that came with summoning a Persona. Orpheus floated above Minato who stared at Sen with a look of determination. "You said I needed to try a new trick. How about this one?"

Sen's eyes widened at the sight. He seemed to panic for a moment before he steeled himself. "That's a nice trick, but let's see how it does against this one!" Sen once again swung his blade sideways, discharging a powerful arc of electrical energy.

"Orpheus!" The harp-wielding Persona leaped in front of Minato, taking all of the blow. Minato wasn't seriously expecting the immense pain that began to course through his body. He let out an agony-filled scream as if HE was the one with electricity running through his body. He fell to one knee as he felt himself resisting the urge to vomit from how it felt like his insides were being fried.

"Minato!" Amane immediately started towards Minato.

"I'm fine!" Minato stumbled a little, but he managed to get to his feet. Orpheus had faded away due to his lack of focus.

Sen seemed actually a little relieved that Minato was fine. He quickly hid emotions under a mask of annoyance.

"Geez. One attack and you're crying like a baby." He hefted Mana Breaker over his shoulder. "You should just quit while you're still breathing."

Minato panted slightly. With a slight groan, he picked his katana up from the floor before turning and pointing it at Sen. "I refuse. I promised myself that I wouldn't give up. I have to find my friends. Even if every bone in my body is broken and if every organ is crushed, I won't just give up." He then adopted a fighting stance. "En garde!"

"You are a piece of work, you know that?" Sen asked rhetorically. He almost seemed a little amused by Minato's determination.

"And did you know you left your guard down?" Sen tensed and twisted around just as Gungnir was jabbed at him, just barely managing to graze his side as he tried to move away. Sen grabbed his side, wincing at the shallow yet painful wound that scarred his flesh. He quickly moved away as Amane returned to Minato's side.

"There's no way we're going to lose to you, you stinking pervert!" She shrieked. Minato stepped away as a familiar flame of rage engulfed Amane. She really knew the strangest moments to bring something up.

Minato sighed. "Maybe it's you who should give up."

"Ha!" Sen laughed mockingly. "Please! If I just gave up, Boss would just kick my ass again!" He said it in a such a lighthearted manner that it was clear it was either a casual or commonplace punishment. He didn't seem particularly worried. Sen adopted a battle stance again. "So let's go!" He ran towards them, ready to swing his blade.

"Minato, stop him before he can swing his sword!" Amane ordered. "If we can stop its movement, then he can't discharge magic!" Minato nodded. He met Sen's charge again. As he moved, he began to glow with a blue aura.

"Izanagi!" The naginata-wielding warrior took the field and flew by Minato's side, mimicking his movements.

"So you really aren't a one-trick pony!" Sen shouted excitedly.

"Tarukaja!" Izanagi then swung his blade forward down on Sen who raised his Mana Breaker above his head to defend. The two blades crossed with the resounding noise of metal on metal. Sen seemed to struggle, but Minato's heart fell when a grin appeared on Sen's face.

"Didn't I tell you already?! Mana Breaker can absorb all magic, INCLUDING enchantments and summons!"

Minato was too late to react. Mana Breaker glowed as a current of wind seemed to circle around the blade. Izanagi's form seemed to waver as the magic was sucked out of his body. Minato felt himself grow a little weak.

It had to be now.

Minato launched himself at Sen, his katana in front of him as he slashed downwards. Sen staggered under the added weight as his attention had previously been completely focused on absorbing Izanagi's power. Sen's staggering was all Minato needed. He firmly planted his feet on the floor and shoved forward, knocking Sen backwards. Minato withdrew as the perfect shot was lined up.

"Now, Amane!"

Sen turned to see Amane charging towards him with Gungnir charged up once again with electricity. Sen quickly turned around, much faster than Minato had anticipated. "Nobody said I had to swing my sword to release mana!" Before either of the bluenettes could react, Sen stabbed Mana Breaker into the ground and used it to lift himself into the air. "EXPLOSION!" Mana Breaker began to glow a brilliant light and a powerful wave of power was released.

It was like the worst of the force had somehow targeted them. Minato was flung one way while Amane another.

The only silver lining was that neither was flung off the side of the platform to plummet down to the ground below. Minato slammed against one of the pillars while Amane slammed into the wall next to the barricade that covered the entrance to the town bell. Amane managed to get to her feet, but she had to use her spear to stand up straight. Minato balanced himself against the pillar he had slammed against.

The initial anger Sen had felt before seemed to have faded entirely. Now he seemed actually remorseful. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Hey, listen. You guys clearly don't have what it takes to fight me seriously...Maybe we should just stop here and-"

""Don't look down on us!"" Both Amane and Minato spoke in perfect unison.

Minato balanced himself on his katana before forcing himself upright. "It's much more than a simple argument..."

Amane readied Gungnir. "It's so much more than a simply grudge or act of anger..."

Minato seemed to focus his magical power as he readied his Persona. "...you. You're not even the top dog of your group, but we can't even lay a real blow on you..." The two of them then began to cautiously circle Sen.

"...there's no doubt we'll face just as strong if not stronger opponents on our paths..."

"...if we lose, then we stand no chance in the future battles."

"If we want to fulfill our dreams and reach our goals..."

"...we absolutely..."

"...can't allow ourselves..."

""TO LOSE TO YOU!""

Amane and Minato charged at Sen who was surprised at the sudden spirit they showed.

"IZANAGI!" The samurai charged ahead of Minato, bringing down his naginata on Sen who once again blocked with Mana Breaker. The magic sword then slowly began to absorb the power sustaining Izanagi's form. Minato felt himself growing weak, but it was all according to plan.

"Piercing Lightning!" Amane's spear became charged with so much energy, its very form radiated an incredibly bright light and crackled like a bolt of lightning itself. Sen's eyes widened as the bright light reflected off of his eyes.

"Mana Pulse!" As if some sort of powerful explosion acted between the blades of the naginata and Mana Breaker, Izanagi was thrown backwards and Minato felt the impact despite still standing up straight. Sen then spun on his heels as he forced his body to avoid the attack, Amane being too close for him to use his sword to absorb the magic.

Even though Sen avoided the attack, the magic discharged from Gungnir continued soaring through the night sky and into the horizon.

Sen whistled. "I guess you guys are serious." He then turned around to see Minato and Amane side-by-side, Minato whispering something in Amane's ear. "Hey! Is break time over?!" He was surprised when the two turned back towards him with confident smiles.

"Go!" Amane shouted. They both immediately ran in opposite directions, coming at Sen from different directions.

"Zio!" Izanagi threw out his hand as he unleashed a particularly large blast of lightning directed at Sen, who raised his sword to absorb the attack.

"How many times do I have to tell that's not going to work?!" His sword began to glow as he prepared to unleash another attack. But then-

"Piercing Lightning!" Sen moved only on reflex, shifting his sword's position so it made contact with Amane's spear just in time. This time, rather than the fluidity the absorption had before, it seemed much more stressful and energy-taking. Even though he absorbed all of the magic, he was still knocked back by the force behind the spear. He managed to avoid losing his balance, but he was left no break. Sen immediately attempted to discharge the magic, but Minato's rising power level startled him.

_The plan won't work unless I use a more magic-based Persona. Time to see what the new parts of my soul have to offer._

Minato materialized his tarot card in front of him. He then swiped at the bottom of the card, causing it to rotate 360 degrees.

_Arcana Shift! Magician!_

Minato then crushed the card in his hand. "Pyro Jack!" A new figure appeared out of thin air. It appeared to be a humanoid jack-o-latern wrapped in a cape and wearing a wizard's hat and carrying a lantern. "Maragi!" Pyro Jack swung his lantern around, releasing an extremely large flame towards Sen. He seemed to panic as he swung his sword around to release more magic. Seeing there was no time, he quickly rethought his plan and instead started to absorb the flames.

The flames from Maragi were sucked into the flat of the blade like a vacuum cleaner.

"GOTCHA!" Amane pointed her spear once again. "It's time for an all-out attack!" Minato's eyes widened at Amane's words, but she didn't appear to notice. A huge splitting pain pierced through Minato's mind. He managed to keep Pyro Jack materialized, but it only made the pain so much worse. It only lasted a second, but Minato was unable to forget it.

_What was that?_

"Piercing Lightning!" Amane's spear once again became lightning itself as its power rushed towards Sen, whose sword once again caught the blast on its blade.

Sen was slowly pushed back, but he kept pushing Mana Breaker forward to absorb the magic. "Didn't I tell ya before? Magic attacks don't work."

"That's not necessarily true." Minato rebutted. Amane smirked as she continued pouring more magic into her attack.

"There is one flaw in your sword's ability: The limit to how much magic it can absorb at once!" It was at that point that a large crack broke the flawless surface of Mana Breaker.

"What?!" Sen was clearly shocked they had learned about that after only one fight.

Minato nodded as he pointed at Sen. "I noticed it earlier on. Whenever you absorb one our attacks, you immediately used one of your sword's attacks immediately afterwards, no doubt to release all of the stored energy inside it just so you could defend against the next attack."

"So what would happen if your sword bit off more than it could chew?" Amane asked, her smirk still present on her face. The single crack on Mana Breaker's blade quickly branched out into many others all across the blade. The blades shape seemed to begin to fall apart.

Sen's eyes widened. "Oh shit."

""Tag Team Attack! Demonic Thunder Flame!""

Flame and lightning united into one steady stream of pure energy. Mana Breaker continued absorbing the magic with poor Sen trying to find some way to release it all before his blade shattered. There was no time though...

"EAT IT, YOU PERVERTED A-HOLE!" Minato sweat dropped at Amane's constantly reappearing anger.

There was a loud sound...like a miniature explosion as Sen's blade suddenly shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Sen let out an outrageous roar of pain as he was engulfed by the bright thunder-flame, sending him flying into the air. Time slowed as his body, still crackling from the electricity still stunning it fell to the ground.

"To think...that I was beaten...by a bunch of newbs..." He fell to the ground with a thud. Steam poured from his mouth as he clearly faded into unconsciousness.

Minato released a sigh of exhaustion as he finally allowed Pyro Jack to fade away. He let the fatigue from the battle finally catch up to him as he sank to his knees. "Well that wasn't as easy as I had been hoping...but we did it..." He wasn't even sure when he started panting.

"You okay?" Amane crouched down slightly to stare at Minato.

Minato nodded. He then turned back to the unconscious Sen. "So what do we do with him?" He scrambled away when a demonic smile crept onto Amane's face.

"I have an idea..." She then pointed one finger at the unconscious, silver-haired teen. "DIE!" A small and only slightly dangerous bolt of electricity shot out of her finger, shocking Sen back into consciousness with a scream of pain.

"GAAH!"

Minato's sweat dropped. "Wasn't that a bit much?"

"No." Was her blunt response.

"So I lost huh?" Sen asked rhetorically, crossing his legs as he sat up. Despite the numerous injuries he sustained during the battle, he didn't seem too angry. Only resigned. "I guess it's no wonder you didn't think much of my Mark." He scratched his head. "Here I was thinking you were poachers."

"Poachers?"

"They're guys who steal Marks from the Association members to try and get more money from a client. It hasn't happened in a LOOOOONG time but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen." He scratched his head. "So I guess I should apologize."

"APOLOGIZE TO MY LEFT FOOT! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO RAPE ME!?" Minato had to grab Amane to keep her from murdering Sen now that the battle was finally over. She struggled with all of her might against Minato, but made no progress in escaping.

Sen seemed seriously disturbed by Amane's accusation. "W-What?! R-Rape?! You?! No-GOD no!" Somehow that only made Amane angrier.

"Oh what?! I'm not good enough for you!? I'm not good enough to be forced to do 'it', is that what you're saying?! AM I NOT WORTHY ENOUGH, YOU ARROGANT BASTARD!?" She once again struggled against Minato to strangle the Hunter before her. Clearly he was just as lost as Minato was.

"For fear that we may get even further off-track, can I ask something?" Minato asked. "If not _that_, then what did you mean when you told her she had to 'repay you'?"

Sen grinned pervertedly before reaching into his pocket and pulling something out. It appeared to be some sort of bundle of strings wrapped into a ball. It was only when Sen unwrapped it that Minato saw that it was a very, VERY small bikini. "I was just gonna ask her to model this." He gave a thumbs up to Amane. "But if that offer to do 'it' is on the table then-URK!" His sentence was cut short as Amane took the opportunity to lunge forward and deliver a powerful uppercut to Sen's chin.

Minato couldn't help but imagine an announcer's voice shouting "K.O.!"

Amane's face was flushed with rage. "You...stupid...son of...mother...pervert..." Minato got the gist of what she was mumbling. He wasn't sure he wanted what she was saying spoken clearly.

Sen once again sat up, not fazed much by Amane's punch other than the bump on his head. "But you guys are lucky it's me you had this fight with. If Boss had been here..." Sen seemed to blanch at the thought. "Well it would not have been pleasant. The thing about Boss is that he really-"

"Really _what_, Sen?" Everyone immediately tensed.

They all turned to see a man in his early to mid twenties. He had medium-length black hair and one dark-orange eye as the other eye was covered by a black eye patch. He wore a long-sleeved black shirt and white, cargo pants. At his sides were two sheathed swords. One of the sheathes was a dark-red color while the other was a snow-white color. He was rather well-built and radiated an aura of power.

Sen started sweating like crazy as he let out a squeak of fear. "B-B-Boss!"

The man shook his head. "You live to make my job more exhausting, don't you?"

"H-How much of that did you see?!"

"Only all of it."

Minato and Amane had a hard time following what was going on here. They only paid special attention when the man turned towards them.

"And I recall you making one of them a Mark."

Sen blinked. "O-Oh that was a j-joke, Boss!" Whoever this guy was, Sen was clearly afraid of him for one reason or another. Sen was answered by a quick smack upside the head. Sen didn't say anything or flinch meant that this was a common occurrence. There hadn't been any real hostility in the gesture.

"How many times have I warned you to be careful with your words? If I had been one of those other idiots, I might have mistaken them for a threat."

Both Amane and Minato looked like they had been slapped.

"What did you say, you one-eyed bastard!?" asked the more hot-headed of the two.

Said one-eyed bastard didn't even blink at Amane. "And you even allowed them to steal your Mark too. Do you know how badly that will reflect on the Association for us to be outdone by outsiders? Less renown means less jobs, and less jobs mean less money..." He sighed, shaking his head. "I come all the way here for nothing..." He then began to mutter something along the lines of "...ship damage..." and "...costing me more than I'm taking in...".

"Don't ignore me!" Amane held out her hands. "GUNGNIR!" The magic spear once again appeared in her hands.

The man finally started paying attention when he rested his eyes-er-EYE on Amane's spear. "That spear..." He then began to rub his chin, as if thinking. He then turned to the still-downed Sen who began scrambling backwards at his boss's gaze. "Is it true that that is the blade that defeated you?"

Sen squeaked slightly before nodding. "Y-Yeah! Amane used it to c-cast her magic, Boss! I-I mean the blue-haired emo used his power but that spear has some sort of special magic to it!"

Minato didn't like the way the man smirked. "That so? In that case maybe this trip won't have been COMPLETELY unprofitable."

"Get to the point, ugly, before I cut out your other eye! I'm still pissed about that other dumbass pervert!"

The man didn't even flinch at Amane's insult. Minato really wished she would just shut up, but was too frozen to tell her as such. The moment began to get more and more tense as time went on. The man before them was certainly not to be underestimated.

"Very well then." He pointed at Amane. "I would appreciate it if you would hand over that spear."

Amane stepped further out of the man's grasp, glaring at him. "No! This spear is my important treasure! I won't let anyone take it!"

The man didn't seem to give a damn, almost having a bored expression on his face. "That's exactly why I wish to have it. It would sell for a lot on the market. A little girl like you shouldn't have such dangerous things anyway."

Amane growled at Sen's boss. "I won't let you have this! It's important to me!" Minato stared.

She held onto that spear like it was some sort of safety blanket or a teddy bear.

Sen stood up and nervously tugged on the man's sleeve. "C-Come on, Shark. There's no reason to start something."

Amane didn't help the situation by pointing her spear towards the man now identified as "Shark". "You can have this spear when you take it from my cold, dead hands!"

Shark brushed his hair out of his face. "To throw such a tantrum over a weapon..."

"SHUT UP!" Amane then charged towards Shark. Shark sighed.

"Well, no choice now but to take it by force. I was hoping you would just hand it over, but..." Shark shook his head as he placed one hand on the hilt of the sword that was in the white sheathe. "Sorry about this." He slowly drew the sword as Amane closed the distance between the two.

"B-Boss, don't!" Sen tried to reach towards either Amane or Shark to stop one, but he clearly had no energy.

Shark's eye seemed to focus entirely on Amane as he gripped his sword with both hands. "This is the end...your _Final Judgement_." He raised his sword in the air even though Amane was still at least a dozen feet away.

Minato felt his entire soul shriek in pain, screaming at him. Telling him something bad was about to happen. He had to act.

Amane screamed in absolute rage. "I won't let you take my one treasure from my Mother!" She poured as much magic into her attack as possible, determined to tear Shark apart. She hadn't even noticed when Shark had vanished in front of her. Amane stopped in her tracks, confused. "Where-?!" Her question was cut short when she heard an incredibly loud scream of pain from right behind her. Amane turned just in time to feel some warm substance splatter against the sides of her face.

She saw the back of a blue jacket with the owner's arms outstretched in front of him, sword drawn...that didn't stop the large diagonal slash from cutting right through his chest. A red liquid spewed from the large wound on his chest. Amane's eyes widened. She found herself unable to move as the blue-haired boy in front of her turned slightly to look at her. The warm, red liquid staining his own face as well.

The light in his eyes was weak. "Oh...you're okay..." He closed his eyes. "...that's good..." Time seemed to slow down as Minato slowly sank to the ground before him. There should have been a bit more ceremony, but it was horribly abrupt, ending with a thud and his sword skittering across the ground. As he laid flat on the ground, arms sprawled out, more of that red liquid slowly leaked out of his chest, forming a pool around his body.

Amane's hands began to tremble as she saw that more of that red substance stained her hands. Gungnir had returned to its pocket dimension, but she was more focused on the liquid.

Blood...

_His_ blood...

The blood of the boy who no longer moved...

Her legs felt weak...she sank to the ground...

She took no notice of the Hunter who struck Minato down. "Eh...I had hoped it would be cleaner..."

Her heart...why did it hurt? Why did it have to hurt like this?

Why was she feeling like this? This...this pain...she couldn't take it anymore...

She screamed. She shrieked as loud as she could, her hands on her head as she practically tried to crush her skull with her grip.

...There was so much blood...blood...

Outside the corner of her vision, Shark scratched his head. "Such a big fuss over a stupid spear. Almost makes me feel stupid for wanting it..."

"Y-You killed him!" Sen finally managed to shout. "Why did you do that?! He was an emo but was it really worth killing him over a spear?!"

Shark pondered this. "You know my policy. A job ain't worth doin if there isn't any profit. Perhaps it was that fool's fault for trying to play the hero. He might've lived longer."

She wasn't sure what part of that statement made her snapped, but something began to burn inside her.

Rage. Pure hatred.

He spoke about killing an innocent person like he was clipping his nails. Someone like that didn't deserve to live if Minato couldn't. All he wanted to do was find his friends! Why did this have to happen!?

Amane summoned Gungnir to her hands, ready to tear the man known as Shark apart.

"Bastard...don't you count me out just yet..." There was the sound of a metal sword cutting through the ground as a bloody teen used his katana for balance. He managed to twist his body around slightly so that he could face Amane and the others. Despite the fact that blood was sprayed all over his face, the fire in his eyes had become slightly brighter than before. Even though he was barely keeping himself upright, Minato looked like he was ready to fight.

Shark's one eye widened slightly, displaying the first bit of surprise he had ever shown them. Sen seemed confused by the expression on his boss's face, perhaps NEVER having seen him look surprised before. "You survived the blow..." It was difficult to figure out if it was a question or a statement.

Minato groaned. "'Survived' may be pushing it a little...I'm pretty sure I'm halfway to Death's door..." He managed to gather enough strength to stand up straight, holding his katana with one hand while he tried to stop the bleeding from the wound in his chest with the other. "But if I'm going to Hell...I'm going to drag you down with me..." It was clear that just speaking was taking a large portion of his energy. He then turned to Amane. "Since I'm gonna probably die anyway...you might wanna leave...go find your Mother, Amane..."

Amane's eyes widened. He spoke as if he was absolutely certain he was going to die. "Idiot...why are you...?"

Minato shook his head. "There's no way we can both escape...I wouldn't make it for long anyway...not in my condition...so it's only natural for you to be the one...who leaves...go fulfill your dream...tell your Ma I said hi..." Amane still felt frozen in place. She wasn't sure what to do anymore. Minato then pointed his sword towards Shark, who raised an eyebrow.

"You fully intend to die fighting me?"

"Yep..." Minato answered. Shark scratched his head.

"I had really been hoping things would go faster than this, but it can't be helped..."

"BOSS, IT'S JUST A STUPID SPEAR!" complained Sen. "LET IT GO!"

"Don't bother...Sen..." Minato interrupted. "...I've chosen my path...and he's chosen his...it's only bad luck that our paths...happen to oppose each other..." His breathing appeared to be getting weaker. He then turned to Amane and gave a weak smile. "Amane, I might just be saying this...cos of all the blood loss, but...even though we haven't known each other very long...I thought we were kinda the same in a way...both searching for something with everything we got...in a way, regardless of how much we argued...I couldn't help but think of you as my friend..."

Amane shook her head, her eyes beginning to well up with tears. Whether they were from sorrow or frustration was unknown. "IDIOT! Don't try to make yourself try to sound cool because you think you're gonna die! You're not gonna die! We're going to go together! We're going to find Mother and your friends, you stupid worm! We're all going to find a way to stop the Heartless and-and-!" Her head was a mess. She couldn't even properly complete all of her thoughts. "And we're all going to smile together someday!"

Minato stared upward, as if remembering something. "Oh yeah...I did promise that, didn't I?" Amane blinked, unsure what he was talking about. "...Riku, Sora, Kairi...I guess when the time comes to smile...I won't be there smiling with you...Sorry." Before anything else could be said, Minato removed his bloody hand away from his wound and wielded his katana with both hands. He immediately burst into a bloody sprint towards his target.

Shark sighed. "I'm not sure whether to call you brave or stupid. Either way, this is the end." He simply raised his sword, waiting for the foolish bluenette to run to him.

He never made it.

The moment Minato got halfway to his target when an unknown forced slammed into his back and knocked him forward, flat on his face.

"Oi! I didn't give ya one of my swords just so you could go and get yourself killed, ya blighter!"

Everyone stopped and blinked several times, trying to figure out what just happened.

Amane recognized her because she completed the bluenette trio with her and Minato. "Sasha!"

The older woman shook her head. "This boy here's a downright fool, ain't he?" Her expression suddenly became serious as she turned to Shark. They both narrowed their eyes at the sight of one another. There was no doubt they knew each other. "I never pegged you for a guy who picks on little kids, Shark. The big leagues gotten too boring for ya so you decide to have some fun?"

Shark scoffed. "At least I don't spend my time running a profitless shack under the guise of a weapon's shop." Amane could've sworn that Sasha's eye twitched a bit at 'shack'. "Besides, I just wanted that girl's blade. They took the Mark I brought my foolish partner to take down and you know how I really hate jobs with no money involved."

Sasha shrugged her shoulders. "Well as I'm sure you can see, they're currently under my protection." She then added in a threatening tone, "Do you really want to pursue this?" Shark gripped his sword tightly and Amane saw Sasha reach behind her back for something. There was a tense moment during which both Sen and Amane thought their two betters were going to fight one another. Shark looked at Minato, still gathering blood around his body despite the fact he had next to none left and then to Sen who looked absolutely terrified and confused at the time and then Amane who seemed uncertain what she should even do.

Eventually Shark sighed, sheathing his sword in the white sheathe. "Forget it." He muttered. "This really isn't worth the time or effort. Not enough profit either." Sasha smirked.

"Admit it. Killing a bunch of kids would leave a bad taste in your mouth," Sasha said teasingly.

"Well if you don't hurry, YOU'LL be the cause of one of those kid's death." Shark pointed to the still bleeding Minato on the ground beside Sasha. Without any ceremony, Sasha lifted Minato up and lifted him over her shoulder, not minding the blood that was spilling out of the wound.

"Aye. But with this one, I wouldn't be surprised if his blood was infinite," she laughed.

"Let's not test that theory." Amane suggested nervously.

Shark turned around. "Sen."

"Y-Yeah, Boss?"

"We're leaving." Shark then began to walk away. He turned one last time to glance at Minato. "To think you saw my attack...maybe you're not strong, but you definitely have potential..." He said it so quietly, Amane really had to focus to hear the words.

"Coming, B-Boss!" Sen followed after Shark, paying one last pitying glance at Minato. "I never meant for things to be taken this far." And then he left.

Amane just watched them go.

"Oi, girly," Amane looked back to Sasha who also turned in the opposite direction to leave, "We'd better hurry before this idiot bleeds to death."

Amane, having nothing else to focus on, nodded before following after Sasha.

Despite being half-unconscious, Minato heard the unmistakeable sound of shattering glass.

_The Hierophant. A symbol of education, authority, conservatism, and obedience._

_Another piece of your soul has returned._

And then all was absolutely dark.

**I really would've preferred that this be longer...but what can ya do? You obviously can't do anything since I'm writing, but...nope. Already forgot the joke...just so tired right now...So on that note, we shall end this chapter at over 6000 words.**

**Still accepting OC's for the United Hunters Association:**

**Name (it can be one name or a full name):**

**Age:**

**Gender:**

**Appearance:**

**Personality:**

**History (optional. They don't really need one):**

**Choice of weapon (Ex: Sword, spear, magic, etc):**

******Special ability of weapon or spell (like does it have some sort of effect? If it's a spell, it can be a custom-made one):**

**Rank (what is their rank between 1 and so on, 1 being the strongest):**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews~!**

**Bye-Bye~!**


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